Paratopic (Nintendo Switch) Review

A crow is munching away at the insides of a man outside the protagonist is at, and no one seems to notice, no one seems to care. The almost dystopian world of Paratopic isn't a happy place. There's a constant feeling of despair here, a feeling that something is wrong. It doesn't help that it's as if nothing is real, and it's all just a bad fever dream. Characters occasionally have weird, blurred, mutating faces, the perspective or chain of events abruptly change, and, generally, weird stuff happen. This all lasts for about an hour. It is a short, horror-flavoured adventure, where the emphasis is on slowly building atmosphere, rather than shocking you with jump scares, or challenging you with puzzles or action sequences. It's a walking simulator that aims to be an experience above else.

This is a tale of three individuals: a smuggler of certain goods, an assassin who must clear up all evidence of these very goods and the ones who know about them when they shouldn't, and someone who unwillingly becomes part of the narrative simply by walking into the wrong side of a forest while trying to get a good snapshot of a lovely bird. The goods in question are some mysterious VHS tapes that are illegal, but highly addictive, and seem to affect the ones watching them in some… bizarre ways (and that's putting it mildly). This is gist, the core, the main concept - but what needs to be done here? How do you play Paratopic?

There are no puzzles to solve, no riddles to answer, no scattered pieces of lore to search for. The character moves in the only path that is usually available, and occasionally makes some minor choices along the way, which don't really add anything to the overall outcome, bar some achievements, and maybe an additional detail regarding the story. There probably isn't really a story here though, and that will disappoint those who take joy in getting their questions answered. There are none here, and there will be very little to work with, even if you discover every hidden detail, and read every single line of dialogue. Paratopic relies in you and you alone to endlessly theorize on it, but it's probably a bit too obfuscating for the whole process to be enjoyable.

Maybe the point is that you aren't supposed to get any resolution here. 'Mystery' is the key word in Paratopic. 'Atmosphere' is an even bigger one, and it's the thing that this excels at. There's a certain feeling of inexorable dread spread throughout this small ride, whether you are walking in a calm, peaceful forest, or in a dark corridor of an old, ugly, dirty building, with the muddled, low-poly 32-bit era visuals and distorted, muffled sounds enhancing the mood by tenfold. To be perfectly honest, enjoying the marvellously dark vibe of it all is the only source of fun here. Of course, that alone won't be enough for most to stomach how light in content it is. Oh, sure according to the developer there actually is a story, but it all feels like an excuse; an easy way to move the responsibility to the one holding the gamepad.

Be aware that there are many unnecessarily long sections that require the right mindset to have fun with. Waiting for an elevator to arrive for almost a whole minute will annoy some and excite those who'll love how it enhances the sensation of being in a weird dream that you can't awake from; the seemingly endless sections where you drive in an empty highway surrounded by seemingly deserted buildings is boring and could be 50% shorter, and yet some (like yours truly) will adore these parts. Yes, nothing happened while at the wheel, yet the mind started going places while the eyes were gazing at the approaching darkness.

Is atmosphere enough to carry a game? Well, it's a matter of personal preferences. These lo-fi PS1-style horror super-indies were never the meatiest of video games, and they mostly aimed at stimulating one's subconscious. Paratopic is short, usually quite cheap, and deeply engrossing, despite its heavy shortcomings when it comes to the story it wants to tell… or not tell. It's a fever dream. It's intriguing in its own way, but don't try to find any meaning behind it all.