Welcome to our review of Behind the screen, a wacky game on Nintendo Switch that has a lot going on.
Is the news being spread in the world true?…
“Behind The Screen” is a suspense puzzle action game, set in Taiwan of an age when the internet was still not common, tracing the life of “a certain murderer”, seeking the truth which has been bent and can no longer be distinguished.
Why did the young man who got arrested as his father’s murderer had such an ending? Looking back at his childhood, boyhood, and to the moments leading up to the incident, the player will face truth and conflict.
During a nervous and mature childhood, incapable of separating reality and dreams, the world started looking like an eerie and fantastic place.
During his boyhood, he condemned the powers that be as an honest student reporter, and to get himself excited, he would impersonate ancient soldiers and politicians.
Did the young man, who ended up becoming “a certain murderer” that day and who still kept resisting, gain anything from facing himself?
The player will re-experience the murderer’s life, solve several mysteries, and search for the truth through the eyes of the murderer.
That was the official description of the game and I have to admit, it is a better description than what I would have given. It hits the nail on the head about the story, but I would make just 1 remark. The storyline and the inability to skip cutscenes are hurting the game a lot. At one point in the game, I had just gone through a “battle” with the father and it just kept going on and on and on. Never once allowing me to just skip a thing. I do feel this could have been done differently and I know it was done for the atmosphere, but heck, cutscenes should not be making me yawn and sadly, they did.
Another thing, this game is a mix of a few game mechanics really. At first, it starts out with a boxxle style moving things around puzzle game. You move others to make way through the sleeping kids, you repeat this a few times and finally, you get to specifically push something instead of pull it. All in all, these were very nice to play.
Next up, the fighting or I should say “strike by the rhythm of the game”. The entire time, I just felt the attacks and defending were basically timed button presses and while it is not bad, it becomes very predictive at one point and the challenge was gone rather fast. As hard as it was in the beginning, as easy it becomes once you see the rhythm of how to strike.
There is a second part to the rhythm game where you just need to press the button when the pointer hits the color. Be careful with suckerpunches and you are good to go. They can get really nasty and really mess you up. All the charm of the game? This can get dark when you are doing this to prevent a bottle from being shoved down your face…
At times, this game is just so dark, that I am not sure it is really a game meant for a Nintendo console, being an old timer, I grew up in a period where this style was simply not found on Nintendo games. I mean really, shoving a broken bottle up someone’s neck. Purposely beating down a bully, trying to rig elections, …. No, storywise, this is no classic family-friendly game.
While it sure is fun to play, the cutscenes and inability to skip parts are really what kills my desire to give it a positive rating. It looks gorgeous in its own way, it is fun to play, but what good does it do when you lose against a boss, that you need to spend another minute before you can get back into it. All because the cutscene forces you to wait….
I may be nitpicking here, but damn, this part annoyed me so hard. The games themselves will be like a 6 out of 10, the graphics, easily a 9, I love the style they have, but the overall feeling….
In conclusion, Behind the screen is a deep adventure into a crazy story with loads of typical Chinese English typing mistakes, trust me, my wife is Chinese and I recognize a lot of em. Great graphics but a poorly executed delivery of the story itself, which totally ruined things, sadly.
My rating is 35%.
