Fort Solis

Fort Solis places a small but intriguing cast in its off-Earth saga in ways that can be familiar, but it justifies its addition to the subgenre with its own fun twists and philosophical arguments.

With a slow burn opening that lays the groundwork for a potentially brilliant sci-fi thriller, Fort Solis initially shows plenty of promise - but its story loses momentum in its later chapters, and fails to stick the landing.

If Fort Solis really was a Netflix series, it wouldn't get a second season.

Fort Solis has some impressive talent behind it, not least the artists and performers. But almost everything else drowns beneath a thick sludge of annoyance thanks to the stifling mechanics, such as the useless map, lack of sprint, and overreliance on QTEs for the underwhelming mystery. If Fort Solis had been a 4K YouTube video instead of a game, I imagine the experience would not have differed much. And maybe it should have just been a video. At least I could have fast-forwarded through the tedious walking sections that comprise most of the game.

Some of you will certainly enjoy the potential Fort Solis puts forward, but others may find its sharper edges a little too rough to handle.

A short-lived yet slowburn sci-fi drama about two engineers exploring a spooky, beautifully designed Martian base that's let down by a general lack of inspiration and especially, a dissatisfying plot.

Thinking back on my playthrough, there were positive times where I’d notice myself admiring some of Solis’ design details, like Jessica’s rubbery glove caught in her glinting headlamp as she shielded her face from the smoggy storm, or narrative decisions, like when Jack passed his hand over a murder victim’s open eyes to empathetically close them. But they don’t create a unified image; I can neither value nor reject what I’ve done here. I put Fort Solis down confused and disengaged, with half a mind on my email notifications.

Fort Solis starts out promising, with an eerie and mysterious narrative that just seems to get everything right. From environmental details to pacing, this opening act genuinely had us thinking we had a Firewatch or Everybody's Gone To Rapture on our hands. However, as the game begins to expand, the pacing tanks, the story fumbles its way across the finish line, and the gameplay experience makes us want to throw our DualSense off the wall. There are a number of ways in which we should be impressed by the game - it's made by a 10 person team after all - but in the end Fort Solis is an experience as dusty as the red planet itself.

Fort Solis is presented like an interactive movie, but with gameplay that detracts from the experience rather than complimenting it. The narrative tries to subvert your expectations to maintain the excitement, but despite the compelling circumstances in the beginning, the story failed to stick the landing in the end.

Fort Solis is technically great from a graphical and audio perspective. The issue is that the narrative and gameplay do not match up, being poor by any standards. It's challenging to get into Fort Solis, from poor pacing and storytelling to gameplay that is boring at the best of times - primarily thanks to some of the slowest movement speeds in gaming today. When you are in, you'll be glad to get back out as soon as possible.