Thomas Was Alone

 
Developer: Mike Bithell
Steam Release: Nov 2012
Hours Played: 6.4
Similar To: 140 / About Love... / Adventures of Pip / Escape Goat / Flat Kingdom
Rating: 4/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Thomas Was Alone shows how a quality platformer should be done. Across 100 well-crafted levels, you take control of about ten quadrilateral shapes of different sizes and colours that each move and jump in different ways. Initially, you control one red rectangle called Thomas. You move and leap about while traversing a landscape aiming to reach the Thomas-shaped portal. As you complete levels, new shapes are introduced as characters with common everyday names such as Chris, Jack and Sarah. Each has their own personality (as revealed by the Steve Merchant sound-a-like narrator) and each moves and jumps differently. For example, John (the long thin yellow rectangle) takes giant leaps while Claire (the big blue square) moves slowly and jumps small distances but can also dive into water.   

BALANCE & PACE
To take control of a shape you scroll through your characters with a small triangle appearing over them and while the game simply applies different jumping mechanics to different shapes, it's the inventive level designs that pull you in and make this a 5-parsnip game. With the activation of switches getting gradually ushered in, the player soon finds themselves figuring out how to adapt and to manipulate their characters' abilities to reach said switches and guide them to success. Activation of the switch initiates a movement of the platform which then allows you to proceed. The level of difficulty is perfectly pitched for the average player and, apart from the final two levels, it never got so hard that I had to resort to walkthroughs.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
It's minimalism all the way with this game and that includes the plain and simple menus. From the title-page, you'll usually just want to hit Resume to simply jump in from where you left off but you can also select a previously played level. With an ambient tinkering of the piano supplying the soundtrack and the soothing voice of comedian Danny Wallace, who brings the thoughts and feelings of the shapes to the fore, Thomas Was Alone is steeped in atmosphere and character. With many different ways to solve each puzzle, I cannot emphasise enough how the pitch-perfect level of difficulty helps to immerse the player into its world. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
Progress is straightforward and easy to keep track of. To jump in, you simply choose from a list of ten unlockable areas or worlds to explore. These are further subdivided into ten levels which appear as small squares with a decimalised number. You don't need a degree in Maths to know that this makes a nice round 100 levels in total. Although the game certainly lends itself to the possibility, developer Mike Bithell has decided not to extend the game to include a speed-running option. Really, a minimalist approach is used here and works perfectly well. 

CONCLUSION

At under 5 hours of play for the average player, TWA is not a particularly long game but I wouldn't hold that against it. In fact, too many games seem to lengthen their games to a fault for no valid reason and can actually be a burden to complete. Not so with Thomas. This subtle but classy game works well on so many levels that it could be enjoyed by teenagers, adults and OAPs alike. With no shooting, guns or killing whatsoever it's also a superb game to play through with younger children to teach them about logic and team-work! This game is a gem. If you don't have it but like platformers - or puzzles in general - I really think you ought to buy it!