Little Orpheus review – Ivan Ivanovitch saves the world

Friv2Online Studio team, the authors of such games as Dear Esther and Everybody's Gone to the Rapture, clearly has Russians - otherwise I cannot explain why Little Orpheus has so many “cranberries” and jokes close to a Russian-speaking person. How the journey to the center of the Earth in Little Orpheus will turn out - we tell in the review.

Little Orpheus is set in the 1960s. While NASA is making plans to land on the moon, Soviet cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich goes in the opposite direction - straight to the center of our planet... and disappears.

Three years later, the hero returns, albeit empty-handed, but with the assertion that he managed to save the world. Of course, the astronaut is immediately taken into circulation by the special services with the intention of finding out what he was doing underground for so long, and where the hell did the nuclear plant that powered the research ship go ! Thus begins the story of the adventures of comrade Ivan in the amazing underworld.

The plot of the game is simple, but it is interesting to follow it. The protagonist seems to be a simpleton, but he manages to withstand the onslaught of a formidable general, which becomes more and more impatient with each chapter. Ivan's voice-over accompanies his adventures, and the action adjusts to the narrative: for example, here the protagonist mentions the pterodactyls that attacked him - and predatory creatures immediately appear on the horizon. The scriptwriters use the “unreliable narrator” technique, and if the astronaut begins to get confused in the testimony, the game reacts vividly to this.

Dialogue is where much of Little Orpheus' charm lies. As noted above, there are definitely Russians in The Chinese Room: the game is simply riddled with "cranberries", but not evil, but lamp-nostalgic. And untranslatable curse words often cause laughter: do not be surprised when the hero characterizes one of the characters with the words “kozel vonyuchiy”. There are many such expressions in the game, and they are surprisingly accurate: Little Orpheus will definitely hit a Russian-speaking gamer, while for Western users many jokes will pass by - a rare feature of a game not developed in Russia.

The world into which Ivan Ivanovich finds himself is also surprising. According to the scriptwriters, there is a whole universe under the earth's crust, and this is not only a jungle with dinosaurs, but also ancient temples, cities of forgotten civilizations, deserts and oceans, and even space ! The design of the locations is very beautiful, although the developers went too far with chromatic aberration: the picture is often blurred at the edges, and the intrusive use of the effect is annoying. However, the art is amazing and the scenery is etched into my memory.

But the gameplay let us down. Little Orpheus was originally released on Apple Arcade, a service that collects games for iOS devices, including tablets. Therefore, the authors had to make some simplifications. In particular, there are practically no serious tests here, there are no battles, and most of the mechanics come down to jumping on platforms and climbing ropes.

There are occasionally interesting sections - like stealth missions inspired by the game of hide and seek with the Scarecrow from Batman: Arkham Asylum - but still, for the most part, the title cannot please with high difficulty. Often, during a tiring run through the next level, I wanted it to end as soon as possible, and the action moved on to a new skirmish between the main character and his opponent.

However, the adventure does not drag on for a long time, and comes to an end in 4-5 hours. During this time, you will visit land, under water and in space, hear a lot of jokes related to the USSR and Russian culture, meet dinosaurs, free the local Menkvi people, and also challenge one crazy explorer. And, if you are not lucky, you will encounter a couple of crashes - the developers were not able to fully cope with the Unity engine. Little Orpheus is a great platformer where the art and script are more valuable than the gameplay.