Also On: PC
Publisher: Deco Digital
Developer: Deco Digital/Bevel Studios
Medium: Digital
Players: 1
Online: No
ESRB: E
You donโt need to look very hard to spot Pneuma: Breath of Lifeโs most obvious influence. The first-person perspective, the challenging puzzles, the robotic eyes watching you, the funny British narrator โ this game is totally a God of War ripoff.
Just kidding! Itโs Portal 2, of course. I mean, there are a few minor differences here and there โ most obviously, the fact that where Valveโs masterpiece took place at the end of the world, Pneuma takes place at the beginning of it โ but were to replace this narrator with Stephen Merchant, the end result would basically be Portal 3.
Iโm of two minds regarding such blatant thievery. On the one hand, it pretty much goes without saying that Pneuma is nowhere near as good as the game itโs stealing from. Thereโs a pretty strong argument to be made that Portal 2 is the best game of all time, so there was basically zero chance that an imitator would have any chance whatsoever of escaping such an enormous shadow.
That said (and I apologize for getting a little corny here), I canโt help but think of the old adage about shooting for the moon and missing. Pneuma may not come anywhere close to matching Portal 2, but because the developers aimed so high, they created a situation in which even achieving half of what they wanted to do still led to a pretty impressive game.
Take the puzzles. Seeing as all youโre doing in every level is trying to keep within view of some creepy robotic eyes, the game doesnโt quite have the flashiness of opening and closing portals. But Pneumaโs puzzles still have a low-key charm that, at their best, can be every bit as puzzling and mind-twisting โ and, most importantly, frustratingly annoying โ as those in the original.
Likewise, while the dialogue isnโt quite as snappy, itโs still a pretty well-written game. Youโre playing as an anonymous being thatโs suddenly sprang into existence, so you get to experience the joy he (it?) feels at simply being alive and discovering the world. Occasionally it all gets a little Intro to Philosophy-esque, but it makes me feel like a philistine to complain that a game took the Cartesian proposition of โI think, therefore I amโ and turning it into a pretty viable plot.
Where the game really falls short, though, is in the presentation. For the most part, it looks pretty fantastic. But thatโs also the problem โ itโs almost too fantastic. I get that weโre talking about a game where everything has literally just come into being, but it still feels too gleaming and polished in places. Consequently, youโre left feeling as though what youโre experiencing is less a finished game and more a really cool tech demo.
And at the other end of the spectrum, there are points where the game doesnโt gleam quite enough. The breaks between each level come when youโreโฆI donโt know, transported (for lack of a better description) from one section to the next, and theyโre marked by your vision going blurry and everything vanishing from view. Thatโs not the problem, though; the problem is that when you start each new section, your vision doesnโt always unblur fast enough, and as you move forward it can occasionally take a few moments before everything lightens up and becomes visible.
All in all, though, Pneuma: Breath of Life does a whole lot more right than it does wrong. I donโt think anyoneโs going to be shortlisting it for the title of Best Game Ever any time soon, mind you, but itโs a solid enough game that it can be enjoyed on its own terms, rather than as just a lousy Portal clone.