Cradle Review

Originality is difficult, it's easy to fall into cliched tropes because they're reliable. There's a reason they are cliched, they've been used time and time again, sometimes even to great effect. It's also difficult because seemingly everything has been done before, or at the very least you can trace anything back to a familiar idea.

That long introduction is necessary for a game like Cradle which on it's surface seems very familiar
but quickly reveals itself to be something quite special and has a story and a world that has stuck with me long after I completed it. Cradle starts with the biggest trope of all, amnesia. You have no idea who you are or where you are. I hate this trope. And yet Cradle uses it to great effect, it's a way to introduce the player to this bizarre world, a way to make everything seems alien, and to make discovery that much more rewarding.

I want to focus on the world of Cradle which I found to be one of the most intricately detailed and fully realized I've ever seen. Questions start spinning around your head as soon as the game starts and the most satisfying thing about the game is that everything is explained. That is, if you have the patience to sift through everything in the game world to learn everything. It helps that Cradle's world is fascinating and I was eager to learn more but if you don't have the patience to read every little thing in the environment a lot of the appeal of this game will be lost on you. The game boils down to an adventure game as you find items and solve small puzzles. But it's the intriguing world and the thousands of questions you'll find yourself having that keeps you engaged. Who is this robotic woman sitting on your workbench? What are these numbers displayed on certain things? What happened to the world? Where is everybody? Who am I?

If it wasn't for such a fascinating world the games questions would be less interesting to pursue but I'm happy to say the games mystery's are compelling and so are the answers. The games tone also helps create an atmosphere of increasing dread as the truths of this world are revealed. Finding the items you need to progress can be really unintuitive as you desperately search for a single small items in a large incredibly cluttered room. Even distinguishing between what is a texture on the ground and what is a legible item that will help flesh out the world can be difficult. Their is also an uninteresting puzzle mechanic that repeats a few times and feels like padding and also tonally disparate with the rest of the game. It's the one real criticism I have with the game are these odd challenge puzzle room sections.

Cradle is a game I want to envelop myself in, I want to read books set in this world, play sequels tot his game, just spend hours examining everything I can about this wonderfully realized world. It's a shame then that some of that lore is needlessly obscure and these out of place puzzle rooms spoil an otherwise fantastic exploratory adventure game.

(4 out of 5)