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REVIEW

Pulse Review

by Liam Gittins, December 14th, 2015
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Pulse puts you in the shoes of a young girl named Eva, who has betrayed her parents’ wishes and decided to take a pilgrimage through some dangerous land. The nice little twist in this story is that Eva is blind, meaning she doesn’t see the world as it is but instead sees it through sound in some form of echolocation, meaning that Eva can only see the world how she imagines it. This use of blind character/echo-location combination is becoming more common in games. We’ve seen it in the cutesy, water coloured world of Beyond Eyes and we’ll also be seeing it next year in the horror title; Perception. Each of these games uses this gameplay combination in order to experiment with both the visual and narrative sides of a video game, in some ways it does prove that video games are an art form, but art can only push a video game so far, before it loses the entertaining ‘game’ element of things.

Pulse often boasts that it is a narrative-driven gaming experience, many titles have called themselves the same thing through recent years and have proved it by delivering unique narratives that leave players in awe. Pulse does not achieve this, the story does not feel unique and ultimately ends up being a tale we have all heard before, and outside of the story there isn’t really much to this title. First off, the game ends before the story can really encapsulate the player. By the time players get the hang of the game, get to know the character of Eva and the world around her, it’s pretty much all over, giving Pulse no depth. Short games aren’t necessarily a bad thing, in fact they can be a breath of fresh air from the sheer number of titles that are designed to take days upon days worth of hours in order to complete, but Pulse suffers due to the fact it takes its short game time to the extreme and can be completed in roughly and hour or so, for the price of £11/$15 that’s not incredibly balanced for your wallet.

The visuals are astounding but the rest of this game leaves a lot to be desired.

Aside from the story issues, the game itself just isn’t hugely entertaining, which is a rather important element in the medium of games. Gameplay-wise it plays similarly to Fullbright’s Gone Home, basically meaning it has a lot of walking. It does attempt to make the gameplay interesting through the echolocation mechanic, the echolocation works in the way that Eva can only see what she can hear, this means that she can see a few steps in front of her by walking around, and she can see the wind as it travels through the canyons. She can also use a cute sheep-like creature called a Moko, these creatures can show Eva more of the world when she throws them, as they bounce off the floors and walls, illuminating the land as they go. It’s a nice addition to the gameplay but still leaves the game as a rather dull experience overall.

The only moment in the game where they use the echolocation to the players advantage is a moment where Eva must walk across a frozen lake, by using her echolocation, she can detect the cracks in the ice and the parts of the lake she cannot stand. It’s a really interesting part of the game and it is an absolute shame the developers didn’t make more moments like this.

Despite the game being an overall boring experience, it’s still aesthetically pleasing. The fact the protagonist is blind brings in some fantastic visual experimentation to the game. The game also does boast some great sound design as each sound is amplified in order to emphasise the fact that Eva’s sight is hindered therefore making her other senses enhanced.

The best way to describe Pulse over-all is that it is one of those games, one of those titles that shone in the concept stages of development, but as the game became more of a reality, it would up being shallow and short-sighted.

5
Pulse is an interesting little puzzle title, but its short run time and lack of experimentation in its own gameplay will leave players feeling a tad disappointed.

Filed under: Adventure Eva Fantasy Game PC Pixel Pi Games Pulse Puzzle

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