The Fall to rise again early next year

Written by Jack Allin — August 5, 2016 at 13:12

It's been over two years since the impressive series debut of The Fall, and with little update since then there's been reason for concern that it may have fallen out of production entirely. Thankfully that is not case, as indie Canadian developer Over the Moon has just released the first major details about the newest installment, Unbound, coming early next year.

The Fall's first episode starred an astronaut named Joseph's, but the actual playable character was his spacesuit – or more particularly, the artificial intelligence controlling its functions called ARID. When Josephs is seriously injured while crashing on an alien planet, it is left to ARID to explore the strange world around her and restore full suit functionality in an effort to save its occupant. Picking up right where the previous game left off, this time around ARID finds that it's her own existence that is "threatened when she is ejected from her body and projected onto a vast global network." Now it's herself she needs to save by invading and controlling "several other robots she finds there, each with wildly different personalities and gameplay styles. Will ARID successfully enlist their help before it’s too late? One thing’s for certain – the process will change her."

As with the last game, Unbound is a side-scrolling adventure that blends traditional character interaction and puzzle-solving with some light Metroidvania-style exploration and combat. The new episode also promises to feature the same "stark, minimalist art direction and sparse, haunting sound design" that made its predecessor so immersively atmospheric, though the developers are promising new characters and gameplay twists to go with the ongoing thought-provoking "journey of self-discovery".

With production going on quietly behind the scenes for some time, we don't need to wait too much longer to see the results, as Unbound is currently on track for release on PC and all three home consoles sometime in the first quarter of 2017. To help get you caught up, the series' first episode will be "heavily discounted" at online retailers in the the next couple of weeks.