Ori and the Blind Forest - A Review

Ori and the Blind Forest.  When I first saw it revealed at E3 2014, I was immediately hooked.  An atmospheric, story-driven action platformer?  Yes please.

Ori was developed by Moon Studios, an indie game developer, which piqued my interest even more.  I have had a great experience with many indie games, and have played a wide variety of them.  But after playing for about 20 hours over the past 2 days, and maxing all achievements, I can confidently say that this is a game that I would highly recommend playing.

What makes this game so amazing?

The game showcased stunning visuals, with a gorgeous setting of a magical forest.  I loved the mix of foreground and background action, which made me feel that I was running around a very dynamic setting, rather than a flat canvas.  I also loved the contrast of different areas of the game.  Some areas are vibrant with bright colors and sunlight, while other dark areas are seemingly rotting away with spiky growths.  This adds so much character to the forest, and reminds the player that the forest itself is alive and slowly dying, which adds a sense of urgency to the player’s tasks.

The level design throughout the game is superb.  The game taunts you with pickups locked behind impassable terrain and obstacles as you explore the overworld.  All of the abilities that you acquire throughout the game are useful, and the game demands that you master each ability, as well as use them in tandem, in order to fully explore and complete the game.  One thing I really liked in particular is that your progress through the game directly affects the overworld.  Certain events that transpire allow you to explore previously unavailable areas, while traversing earlier areas becomes easier.

The gameplay for this game was excellent.  The controls are very responsive, and all of the animations are very smooth.  As you progress through the game, more abilities are unlocked, which allows you to slowly explore more and more of the overworld, and access previously inaccessible areas and collectibles.  Some areas and collectibles require you to use your new abilities in creative ways, or in some combination of them.  The game in this way is challenging, forcing the player to figure out how to use the tools given to decide if the area or collectible is available or if another ability is needed.  As you play through the game, you will encounter a variety of puzzles to solve in order to progress, all of which are pretty interesting.

What I found intriguing is that the developers made combat simple but challenging.  Combat in this game is fairly straightforward – you mash the attack button, and the game will “autolock” on the nearest enemy.  However, most enemies will take more than one attack to defeat, and will retaliate in the meantime.  I found it very innovative that you actually need to keep certain enemies alive to help you explore and progress further.

This game is hard.  The game is pretty generous in when and where you can save, but not so much in certain areas.  I’ve had plenty share of deaths through the entire game, but all of those deaths were as a result of me misplaying or being careless, and not from a failure in level design or controls.

I’m a real sucker for good soundtracks, and this one simply blew me away.  The soundtrack throughout the game reflected my mindset perfectly as I played through the game.  The music was well-suited, and provided much of the atmosphere as I explored the overworld.  The music is very emotional, and it conveys that emotion flawlessly throughout the game: during exploration, cutscenes, and some action sequences.

If you’ve already played through the game, I would recommend you listen to the soundtrack by itself.  See if you can tell which area each song is played at.  I’m biased since I’ve already played so much, but I can correctly guess about 80% of the time which songs are played at specific locations throughout the game.  That is impressive to me since those songs provide so much to the character of each area, that I can identify the song associated with those areas.

Another element that I love about the soundtrack is that the main theme of Ori is reused as a motif throughout the game.  In some sections, you can distinctly hear the main theme, evolved with some added tone changes, or using other instruments.  This is amazing since it provides a connection between all of the areas you play through within the world of Ori.  Having this motif serves as a connection between each of these areas; it shows that each of these areas is an extension of the main world, not a mosaic of definitively separate places.

As amazing as this game is, I have a couple of small gripes with some of the things implemented in the game.  In my opinion, the narrator was not necessary in the game.  The storytelling of the game was already well-done enough that the inclusion of the narrator was unnecessary and drew me out of the immersion slightly.  The game also sections off areas that cannot be explored again, which is logical for the narrative, but annoying for the player.  In an exploration game, having an area that cannot be returned to, especially if there are collectibles, is annoying.  Speaking of completion, I also had some issues with achievement bugs (at least for my PC version) during my runs.

All in all, Ori and the Blind Forest is one of the best platformers I’ve played in a very long time.  If you haven’t played it yet, you should change that as soon as possible.  You will not be disappointed.

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