Developer: Fallen Leaf, Black Drakkar Games
Publisher: Dear Villagers
Available On: PC, macOS (Coming Soon), PlayStation 5
Reviewed on PlayStation 5
Pitched as a tight sci-fi thriller at Summer Game Fest last year, Fort Solis is the first project by co-developers Fallen Leaf and Black Drakkar Games. Designed with the power of Unreal Engine 5 and featuring the voice talent of industry legends Troy Baker and Roger Clark, Fort Solis instantly wowed with its high visual quality and megastar cast, an unusual combination for a first-release indie game. As the game crept ever closer to its release, it was clear that it was keeping its cards close to its chest. There were few trailers, interviews, and videos about the game, so much of what it was remained to be seen. Sadly, now that the game has been released and I’ve been able to uncover the mystery at its core, it’s also clear that the execution of the experience doesn’t match its ambition.
Fort Solis follows the journey of an engineer named Jack Leary who receives a distress call from Fort Solis, a research base on Mars. Upon arriving at the eponymous location, Jack discovers that the crew that was supposed to be there has gone missing, the power has been shut down, and all signs point towards some sort of power struggle that took place in its dark halls and ominous research labs. Along with the radio aid of his fellow engineer, Jessica Appleton, Jack descends into the dark and claustrophobic Fort Solis in search of answers. Without giving away too much, the story is a bit of a disappointment. Anyone well-versed in science fiction is going to see every story beat coming from a mile away, and I found myself essentially piecing everything together and predicting the ending a little less than halfway through. It’s not a bad story, but it does feel generic and comes across like it’s checking off all the boxes of a “sci-fi thriller” without adding anything new to the equation.
As far as structure is concerned, Fort Solis follows an episodic format, but it’s also a complete package, meaning you don’t have to wait between episodes for the next one to release. There are four chapters, and while you can break it up into four separate sessions if you really want to, you can also just binge the whole thing, which is what I did. Regardless of how you approach it, it should only take a total of 4-5 hours to finish the game. It is worth mentioning that unlike other episodic games (The Walking Dead, Life is Strange, etc.) there are no decisions to make or different story branches to uncover, which completely removes the replay value that typically comes with this structure. There are an insane amount of collectibles to find (mostly audio and text logs), but whether or not that’s enough of an incentive to garner a second playthrough will vary from person to person.
While the story may not be as fresh and original as I would have liked to see, the cast is absolutely tremendous. Roger Clark became one of the most beloved voice actors in gaming after his masterful role as Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption II, and he knocks it out of the park yet again as Jack Leary in Fort Solis. Jack is just your average guy, making him feel relatable right out of the gate. He’s finishing up a long rotation on Mars and getting ready to take a much-deserved vacation to kick back, have some beers, and enjoy life, but then he receives the distress call that kicks off this story. As he explores the base and communicates with Jessica to tell her of his discoveries, we get to see how much of a laidback and goofy guy he is. Jack isn’t a hardened military soldier or some genius IQ super sleuth, he’s just a normal dude trying to check in on people and see if they need help. Some of that grit Clark used in his performance in Red Dead Redemption II can be heard here, but he’s also a little more gentle and genuine this time around.
Likewise, Julia Brown as Jessica Appleton is another terrific performance. I’m admittedly not familiar with any of her prior work (and this seems to be her first role in a video game), but I think she’s delightful. Jessica has a very sarcastic relationship with Jack, with the two of them slinging jokes at each other over the radio and trying to keep things light in the face of a potentially scary situation. There is a playful bit of flirtation between the two, but it’s very subtle and feels more like a joke between close friends than any serious indication of romantic interest. What really makes Brown’s performance so captivating is largely centered around stuff in the back half of the game that I don’t want to spoil, so all I’ll say is that she has a scene that ranks among the most nail-bitingly anxious cutscenes I’ve ever seen in the medium and legitimately had me tensing up. I really hope this isn’t the last time we see her in a video game role, because I think she’s an absolute natural and crushes it with this performance.
Lastly, Troy Baker plays Wyatt Taylor, an officer at Fort Solis who is largely featured in audio and video recordings found through the base. In typical Troy Baker fashion, he just sort of effortlessly inhabits his character and adds a depth and soul that comes across naturally. As you start to piece together the events that led to the base being in its currently absent state, you begin to learn how Wyatt was one of the first people to figure out what was going on and wound up at the center of things, making any of his recordings super important and worth engaging with when you find one.
As great as the performances are, the real star of the game is Fort Solis itself. Largely due to the power and fidelity of Unreal Engine 5, this game looks absolutely gorgeous and is one of the best-looking games I’ve seen during this generation. The lighting is a highlight, subtly illuminating the shadows in some areas while basking entire rooms in realistic fluorescent or neon lights in others. Reflections and particle effects are two more standouts, further making each area look nearly photo-realistic. Every surface looks incredible with how it reacts to the lighting in the area, and the texture work on virtually everything is magnificent. This is one of those games where I constantly found myself stopping and just taking an area in for a minute or two before proceeding further. Like many PS5 games, you’re given the option between Quality and Performance mode, allowing you to choose between higher resolution or frame rate. I almost always choose the Performance mode in games, but Fort Solis looks so freaking good that I slapped on the Quality mode and never looked back.
As much as I hate to say it, this is where anything positive I have to say comes to an end. While it’s undeniably a visual showpiece with great performances, as a game it fails on nearly every level. Fort Solis is essentially a walking simulator, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing (I’ve enjoyed several games in that style) but it’s far from desirable here. The main problem is that you have arguably the slowest movement I’ve ever seen in a video game. There’s no way to sprint or run, so you’re stuck exploring the base at the speed of a snail trying to make it up a hill covered in molasses. Movement feels sluggish, and the fact that you can occasionally get stuck on objects when trying to move around them gets incredibly frustrating. While I wouldn’t quite say the base is massive, it’s big enough that it takes time to get from one area to another, which makes the movement speed more noticeable and annoying to deal with.
The game does try to make things easier by giving you a device on your wrist that contains a map of the area, but it’s a pain in the ass to use. For starters, the map is so far zoomed out that it feels too tiny to read at first glance, forcing you to use a zoom function to its fullest to make out the area more clearly. However, the biggest problem with the map is that the wrist device is a reflective surface and constantly picks up nearby lighting, making it impossibly hard to see at times. Whenever I needed to check my map I would have to make sure that I wasn’t under or next to a light source, which became an obnoxious extra hurdle to leap over. This same device also stores all of the audio, video, and text messages you pick up throughout the base, and the text is so small that even on a 50″ TV I had a hard time reading it. There’s no way to increase the text size, so I found myself leaning in or getting closer to the screen to read them. This is a glaring (no pun intended) accessibility issue, especially since reading these messages is integral to piecing together the events of the story or discovering passwords to open doors and locks.
Another issue is that there seem to be bugs that can temporarily or even permanently block progression. I had at least three situations where I needed to interact with a lever, computer, or other object to progress and the game would simply not bring up the button prompt to use it. This was fixed by closing and relaunching the game, but there’s still one optional area that completely bugged out for me and prevented my quest to get all of the collectibles. The collectibles thankfully carry over across playthroughs, but I’m not sure I have it in me to slowly walk around for another 4 hours to just get access to one room.
My last major issue with this game is the awful implementation of quick-time events. These QTEs are among the worst I’ve ever seen, largely due to how poorly they read on the screen. These quick prompts flash for roughly a single second and are so small that half the time I didn’t realize they were there until they flashed red because I missed them. The weirdest part is that even though I missed so many of them the game just kept on going with no halt to progression, or a game over, or anything. They almost felt pointless with no impact on the game whatsoever, leaving me genuinely confused by their appearance.
Lastly, there were a few technical issues I encountered. While I played the vast majority of the game in Quality mode, I did try out the Performance mode early on and found it inconsistent. It’s targeting 60 FPS, but doesn’t seem to be able to maintain it, dipping frequently in a noticeable manner. The Quality mode seems to maintain its target of 30 FPS without dipping, but I had one or two moments where the game completely froze for a few seconds before continuing just fine. It’s entirely up to you to choose whichever mode you prefer if you decide to play this game, but I recommend the Quality mode for a surprisingly more stable experience.
FINAL VERDICT
Fort Solis is a tough game to recommend. It features three central performances that are genuinely remarkable, as well as a stunning display of the power of Unreal Engine 5, but the predictable story, agonizingly slow movement speed, accessibility issues with the wrist device, and a small handful of technical issues constantly get in the way of the experience. I do think there’s something here, it’s just a shame the good elements are buried under the weight of all of its problems. I can’t quite recommend Fort Solis, but I think if the teams that worked on it address these issues for their next game we might have something really cool to look forward to.
– Zack Burrows
Sight-In Games 