North | PS4 Review.

Publisher: Sometimes You
Developer: Outlands
PS4 Review

I started this game without knowing what it was about, I purposely bought it from the PSN store because the price and because the bright colours enticed me, I knew it wouldn't be a long game due to the price (£3.29) anyways but I gave it a go and realised it is about being a refugee, I'm sure as many of you are aware that there is a refugee crisis and there are a lot of ignorant people who don't care how scared refugees must be feeling, I for one think people like this are a disgrace if someone is seeking refuged it's usually for a good reason and can be a terrifying process to go through. It's a very short puzzle, Indie, Adventure game which is available on PS4, Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS Vita and Xbox One.

In the game North you play as a refugee, now I'm not going to say the game is accurate and represents the whole process but what I am saying is basing a game on this is very interesting and makes you think about how refugees truly must feel, especially when people call them aliens and in this case everyone is an alien, even the ones processing your paperwork. There are 3 different forms that you will need to collect in order to be granted asylum in the North, it's not that clear on how to get these bits of paperwork but after some exploring you will get the gist of it in no time, I got through the whole game in about 30 minutes so if you're looking for a long game you will be disappointed with North, it's a nice little time waster though.

At the start of North, you're met by a very bright title sequence which makes you think the game is the same but it's not, it's very dark and depressing and I think the reason for this is the process of seeking asylum, the game is almost depressing especially when you go off to work and you see so many gravestones inside your workplace, I figured that they represent all the people proving they are fit for work who have passed away either because of illness or because they weren't fit to work in the first place which is a very sad and harrowing feeling.

The aliens I come across can be a little freaky but most of all there is a church which you go into with a giant eye and you convert whilst in there and it seems like this may be representing having to change your religion to be able to seek asylum in another country because I have heard of this happening a lot and it's something a lot of people refuse to do because their religion represents them and is their whole life, kind of sad really, only being accepted once you prove your loyalty to another religion. There are three different levels which you can explore, you live on the first one in a house with a number of different refugees and it's not the nicest looking place, on the third level is the immigration office which you can't enter until you have all three of your certificates but if you try the door before you have them you will get a trophy for it, which is really random.

The main feature of this game is the letters you send to your sister, you talk to about the process and how it makes you feel, by reading the letters they give you a big clue as to what you should be doing in the game if you do get stuck, I ended up exploring each corner of each level at a time in order to find anything I missed in order to trigger a trophy in the game, you may find that you need to play through it a few times to get all the trophies you missed but the hardest one I found was the good worker achievement, I had to be fast in order to get through work and I kept dying (yes you can die in this game).

Personally I enjoyed this game, there isn't that many trophies to collect or a platinum trophy, the message was a very direct one and one not many people think about, would be cool if they added a DLC to it so we can see what it's like in the North though, for the price /story I give this 4/5 stars.