Fort Solis Review

Initial Release Date: August 22, 2023

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows, Mac operating systems

Developers: Fallen Leaf, Black Drakkar Games, Fallen Leaf S.A.

Engine: Unreal Engine 5

Genres: Adventure game, Adventure

Publishers: Dear Villagers, Merge Games, Plug In Digital

SPOILERS THROUGHOUT!!!

Introduction

Fort Solis was an impressive game made by the small talented independent team of developers at Fallen Leaf. At it’s core, Fort Solis is a walking simulator centered around unfolding the dark mysteries within Fort Solis which takes place on Mars.

To give you a description of Fort Solis’s gameplay and it’s overall presentation think previous Quantic Dream’s titles such as Detroit and or Heavy Rain. Science fiction and story are heavy in Fort Solis with the likes of Dead Space and Calisto Protocol’s aesthetic.

Unlike the latter mega-huge financially backed games Fort Solis easily stands with those AAA titans in the visuals department. Running on Unreal Engine 5 Fort Solis is visually stunning drowning the player into a dark thick sci-fi world. With that typed, technically I have complaints for Fort Solis.

The game never ran smooth whether in performance of quality mode. Stuttering and flickering too damn much. At times the game did run smooth. It just wasn’t consistent at all ever. And the camera was very wonky when you consider all of the tight spaces zooming in and out uncontrollably was annoying. For the record, I played this on my Playstation 5.

Presentation

Fort Solis has a really solid presentation overall. In some aspects, for instance, it’s graphics rivals most AAA blockbusters. It looks amazing visually. The voice acting and story presentation are top notch.

This video game is a true walking simulator, by that, you can’t even jog in this. Only time Jack (protagonist) ran were in cutscenes. Walking sims are an acquired taste. I like walking sims as long as the story and dialogue are engaging which Fort Solis was.

You are never confused about unraveling the mystery as to what happened at Fort Solis. Atmosphere was very visceral. This isn’t a horror video game but instead a “unravel the mystery” video game and the presentation nailed it.

Like I alluded to above there were technical issues throughout this game. It never ran smoothly on my Playstation 5 which sucked considering there is no real time combat in Fort Solis.

Story

You play the roles of Jack Leary and Jessica Appleton two space miners on a corpo Mars mission to fix a tower that eventually leads them to investigate a distress call at the nearby Fort Solis.

The story goes some secret defunct corporation is experimenting with some alien compound that makes humans go mad apparently. Jack and Jessica slowly discover the remains of Fort Solis personal either by their corpses or audio, visual logs.

I enjoyed the pace at which the unraveling process was directed. The writing and directing were AAA level in my opinion. Granted, it is easier to tell a story by walking and talking for the majority of the game but still. Credit where credit is due.

Gameplay

Gameplay could be devisive for some but lucky for me I enjoy walking sims as long as they are good walking sims. By walking simulator I mean walking simulator in Fort Solis’s case. You cannot jog or run at all.

Quick Time Events or QTEs make up the combat and life threatening action set pieces. QTEs had no negative consequences if you make a mistake or not. You don’t die from QTEs. At least I didn’t. Early mid 2000’s come to mind when analyzing Fort Solis core overall gameplay mechanics.

You walk, you have QTE’s (though not many). Much of the game is about finding various keycards to venture into the next section of Fort Solis. You can examine various items and investigate them ala Resident Evil style.

Fort Solis is a game that can be completed in one sitting clocking around three or four hours for most gamers at $29.99 on PSN. It’s a short game with good pacing and story telling within it’s walking simulator gameplay mechanic. I never felt bored or padding playing Fort Solis. There are collectibles items and easter eggs to find as well.

There were a couple puzzles that were average at best in design. Gameplay was immersive due to the visual fidelity. I could almost taste Mars’s blowing storm dust through Jack and Jessica’s suits. Speaking of that, you do play as both Jack Leary and Jessica Appleton in Fort Solis.

The final push of gameplay involves you avoiding a crazed axe wielding MD named Wyatt Taylor which was predictable if you know the voice actor is Troy Baker. To navigate via map and examine data logs you use your wrist multi-tool. Multi-tool was useless for navigating the map. Just saying.

So let’s recap gameplay. You only walk, you can investigate items. You search for keycards and perform QTEs a few times throughout the game. Gameplay is Fort Solis’s weakest component. The immersion is what impressed me here which leads into the next component of this review, visuals.

Visuals/Graphics

Fort Solis along with Stray are the best looking indie video games I have ever played. Fort Solis nails Mars’s atmosphere especially in the surface gameplay sections. The storms, lighting, winds and dust were thick on the surface you could only see a few feet in front of you with a flashlight.

Unreal Engine 5 was put to good use here with it’s exceptional lighting and texture work inside Fort Solis and on Mar’s surface. I’m happy that I’m buying and playing more and more video games going full Unreal Engine 5. Every game I played using it I been impressed visually.

Sound/Music

The marketing and selling point for Fort Solis (not for me necessarily) were the voice actors and actresses comprised of Roger Clarke as Jack Leary, Troy Baker as Wyatt Taylor and Julia Brown as Jessica Appleton. All involved were great in my opinion.

Walking sections became entertaining and thought provoking as Jack and Jessica talked. Think Firewatch. The mad MD played by Troy Baker was stellar and reminded me of watching Jack Nicholson in The Shining.

Final Verdict

Fort Solis is a smart video game created by smart people along with the voice actors and actresses made a small indie game appear AAA in stature. Fort Solis won’t be for all gamers as it’s a true walking sim at heart. As for me, I really enjoyed the pacing unraveling the dark mysteries on Mars.

Fort Solis is a good video game with some technical issues in my opinion. Reminder Fort Solis is a three to four video game at best. It’s short and sweet with good pacing. If the latter sounds good I say buy it at it’s current $29.99 PSN price. Or wait for a price drop. Think for yourself. Later – Jason

7/10