Saira (PC) Review

Nifflas - of Knytt Underground fame and more - has done a sublime job in implementing a wonderfully eerie ambience where the player really feels the isolation they are in the midst of. It is very tangible and feels very reminiscent of the opening of Super Metroid. In fact, much like Samus and Lara Croft, Saira will spend much of the time exploring her surroundings, looking for clues to progress towards her quest home.

Fortunately enough, Saira is not without assistance. That silver lining appears in the form of her trusted PDA, which will be relied upon heavily throughout her journey. With it, Saira can take snapshots of her surroundings, which, handily, not only documents and displays information on habituating creatures, but also allows the player to take photographs of clues to puzzles they have yet to encounter in levels, meaning Nifflas has seamlessly created a tool that smoothly eradicates the age old problem of constant backtracking. There will also be no need to scribble down passwords on scraps of paper. Early on, in the first level alone, gamers will encounter a couple of puzzles where the usefulness of the PDA will become apparent. It's a simple but nice touch that settles all comers into the mindset needed to solve the puzzles waiting ahead. The PDA can also be used to teleport back to Saira's ship, as well as to the last check point, shaving more time off her journey.

The gameplay style and mechanics in Saira are very much a binary affair; whilst the platforming side feels like a relaxing, explorative tour of vast and differentiating worlds, the puzzles themselves abruptly take the player out of those worlds, challenging them with some often brain busting problems. These don't always seem to correspond to the overall feel of the game and are sure to split fans' opinions, who may feel the pace of the game is compromised by the intermittent layout of the puzzles.

The character animations and controls feel disappointingly simplistic, and whilst they don't detract too much from the overall enjoyment of the experience, it would have been nice to see more work put into that department. Saira is able enough, but she definitely lacks the depth of movement of Lara Croft, for example. Whilst it is fun skimming through the various locations, and even satisfying in the effortless manner Saira jumps across the plains, she lacks the level of detail in animation attributed to other characters in similar games, and, therefore, it makes it harder to feel immersed quite as much. The lack of emotion portrayed by Saira doesn't help matters either; it's a shame that the effort placed on instilling a real sense of isolation through the great audio and art style couldn't be replicated through the character behaviour, too.

Additionally, the visual side of Saira definitely deserves a mention. As stated previously, it does a great job at really emphasising the lonely state of the planet. The foregrounds within the levels generally hold a minimalist approach, depicting simple plains early on, but the backgrounds always carry more detail and project a slight hazy look, denoting a real sense of relaxation, which definitely goes hand-in-hand with the exploration approach in much of the game. The audio work is probably the most effective part of Saira, however, proving the importance audio design carries when immersing players into another world. The score of each level really stands out and completely brings every planet to life. During the moments spent travelling from one planet to another, the player will be treated to music from the radio in the teleporter, which makes a real impact and does an excellent job of maintaining the overall tone and atmosphere of this intriguing little PC project.