Quick Review: Thomas Was Alone

How do you humanize squares and rectangles?

Pictures in this review might not convey much,
seeing as it's a game about the power that
narration can have in a medium.

Bithell Games is the studio behind Thomas Was Alone, a game released on November 12th, 2012. Its concept is fairly simple: In a digital world, Artificial Intelligences represented by squares and rectangles of varying shapes and sizes have to help each other across their virtual world. They have varying abilities; the first, Thomas, is a standard red rectangle with decent jumping abilities. The next, Chris, is a plain, plump, orange square, therefore he’s slow and somewhat bad at jumping. John is a tall yellow rectangle; he has amazing jumping abilities. Claire, the fourth, is a large blue square with a unique property the others don’t have; not only doesn’t she die in water, she actually floats!

Chris and Thomas, unlikely allies.

Wait. Names? Pronouns? Aren’t those just shapes? Well, the game is accompanied by narration telling the player what each square or rectangle is thinking. As such you can find out that Thomas seems happy with every facet of existence (especially once he is no longer alone), Chris as a moody jerk who resents everyone’s better abilities, John who is generally upbeat and likes to have a crowd, and Claire who immediately imagines herself as a superhero upon noticing she has talents the others don’t. Yes, actual superhero fiction is referenced. And that’s the first four protagonists; a few more join the game over time.

Just four friends helping each other
across a lake. Nothing out of the ordinary here.

You move around with WASD or the arrows, and switch between characters with the numerical pad. In each level, all of the shapes present have to reach their appropriately-shaped portal exits. Not every character is in every level; even Thomas doesn’t appear in all of them. Sometimes, it will involve a precise series of moves in which the shapes help each other to reach the portals. As an example, Thomas and John often have to act like a sort of staircase for Chris, and Claire carries the other three over bodies of water.

See? I’m already getting used to talking about them with their names! The narration does a fantastic job at humanizing these otherwise unremarkable shapes. It gives them a kind of individuality, denoted not just in the expressions the narrator claims they have (Thomas applauds? Without hands? Okay, I guess), but also in the tone that narrator takes when describing their thoughts. As an example, with all of her superhero talk, who wouldn’t paint Claire as a geek?

Don't worry Claire, you won't stay alone for
very long.

A fifth character? And she's bouncy?
That's pretty cool.

I really enjoyed this one. The presentation is extremely simple, but there’s definitely a story there (as evidenced by all the references to A.I. and programs from experts, as if what you’ve been playing was a lead-up to some sort of important event). The puzzles get really creative with each character’s abilities. Things do get trickier as new abilities are introduced. What annoyed me was that, since you don’t have all of the characters on all levels, the numerical pad key necessary to control one character often changed between levels (as an example, you could switch from any other character to John by pressing 3 in one level, and by pressing 5 in the other). There is a color code at the bottom right of the screen to indicate which character is selected by which key at the moment, but it does mean you need to adapt every time. It’s a minor issue, but still one that can be a bother.

It gets pretty complex once you have to keep
track of four or five characters. But overall I
thought the puzzles were fair throughout.

Other than that, yeah, it’s a very great game that shows the power that narration can have. Coupled with interesting gameplay, ideas, and challenges… yep, this is one game to try out, definitely.

Thomas Was Alone is available for 9.99$ USD.