I didn’t know anything about Evergate when I was asked to review it, all the trailers had completely passed me by but once I had taken just a single look at the visuals my love for the Ori series took over and I instantly knew I had to play this game.
For anyone else like me who had this game almost completely skip them by: Evergate is a beautiful little puzzle game where you are tasked with completing a number of platforming puzzle levels in order to open the titular Evergate. You take control of a recently departed Soul and simply have to make your way through a number of levels, completing puzzles and additional challenges as you go.
The gameplay is fairly simple on the surface – you can point your spirit and bounce off of varying icons, if you are also pointed at a white flame, in order to make your way to the end, collecting little things as you go which help you unlock additions to the game. The icons disappear as you bounce on them and, even early on, this presents a real challenge in the game that epitomizes “one more go” level of gameplay followed by intense satisfaction once you complete some of the games more challenging puzzles.
At first I thought the gameplay would end up feeling a little shallow but the constantly evolving challenges kept the game fresh throughout my whole playthrough and whilst there really isn’t a great deal more to say on the gameplay, I thoroughly enjoyed my entire playthrough of the game
Evergate is hauntingly beautiful and there is no two ways about it. The game is set with hand drawn back drops and a stunningly sombre soundtrack that brings out both peace and the eerie nature that the game wants to present. When it comes to soundtrack, backdrop design and the sprites – I haven’t played anything else on the switch that even comes close to just how incredibly pretty this game is.
As I played through each of the games levels, I kept comparing the game to the Ori series and whilst they really are two completely different games – Evergate holds up strongly when compared to Ori. In comparison however, when comparing the two I felt that I had a lot more emotional involvement when it comes to the Ori games than I did with Evergate and I simply felt I had more reason to strive forwards in Ori than I ever did in Evergate. This doesn’t necessarily make Evergate any less amazing to play over all, it just worked as a real testament to the storytelling of Ori that they were able to garner such emotion from me by barely giving me any story at all.
This isn’t to say that there is no story in Evergate, but as with all my reviews I will be leaving it up to you, dear reader, to take a deep dive into the surprisingly good story of Evergate and come up to the same surprises as I did without some horrible game journalist ruining it for you.
I had a lot of fun with Evergate and I challenge anyone to find a more beautiful and haunting game on the Nintendo Switch. The puzzles provided me with the exact right level of challenge and satisfaction that I kept going for just one more try deep into the early hours of the morning.
Whilst the story lacked when compared to Ori, it was still an eerily beautiful tale that accomplishes almost everything it sets out to do.
With this in mind – I give Evergate an 8/10/
You could spend £16.99 on a lot worse things and if you are looking for a game that will challenge the brain and make you feel satisfied and accomplished then you need look no further than Evergate.