As the story goes, because of humanity’s own stupidity, we wrecked the world and are now forced to become subterranean. To enable our adaption underground, we engineer robot and A.I. help. But then they become too smart for us, prompting a need for humanity to rebel against our high tech overlords.
I like this game quite a lot. The controls are superb. The ability to level up provides a great sense of progression. And the boss fights are challenging.
Graphically, this is quite impressive. I love the character models as well as the environments. And it’s got a very unique aesthetic.
But what’s really impressive is the lighting effects. On a Steam Deck, it looks pretty good. But on my tower, which has an RTX 3070, it completely blew me away. I’ve never seen a 2.5D platformer look so good – ever. And keep in mind that Fallback came out in 2019.
The sound design is also a core part of this game, and really enhances the feel. The clank of the metal and steam of the pistons really help me immerse myself in the world. And the soundtrack is both atmospheric and eery.
What makes this game so much fun is the sense of exploration of each level. Each time I play Fallback, I discover something new.
All that said, Fallback demands hefty specs. At minimum, you need 3.3Ghz Intel i3 2120 CPU, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GTX 960, and 4GB space. It was made for only Windows, but I got it to work on Linux via Proton. It performs admirably on a Steam Deck, though it eats battery power.
You might wonder why a game like Fallback demands such specs. And that’s because Fallback’s graphics really do demand performance. The screenshots I’m sharing don’t quite indicate this because it’s from a Steam Deck with a native 720P resolution – yes, as I said, it’s completely playable on a Steam Deck. But when you set the graphics settings to “Very High”, Fallback becomes breath-taking.
Now I don’t often talk about price because I don’t think it has much bearing on whether a game is good or not. Nevertheless, it’s actually shocking that it sells for a regular price of CAD$11.95 because games that look this good and have that much gameplay often don’t sell for that price.
It’s further surprising that so few people have even heard of Fallback. There’s no Wikipedia page for it. And it’s only ever gotten 277 reviews on Steam. Clearly, Fallback is quite an obscure title.
If you have the ability to play Fallback, I highly recommend it. This is a hidden gem.
