Summerland is a game by Fyre Games that was released on the 2nd of December 2020. The game is a first-person walking simulator that follows Matthew, a detective who has passed away, as he travels through certain key memories that lead up to his death. Matthew periodically meets with an unknown voice who is only known as “Judge”, whose job is to decide the fate of Matthew.
The game deals with life, death and morality, including bringing in some philosophical arguments and questions.
Graphics
The graphics are typical video game-y graphics. It’s not realistic, but still nice to look at.
The graphics used for the other people in the game are mesmerising. I love looking at them, it gives the ethereal feeling that you are not in a normal place. This makes it a perfect match for the story.
Gameplay
The gameplay was good. Summerland is split up into different sections (or rooms). Each room represents another memory of Matthew, with about 5 to 10 tasks to do.
The tasks are pretty much “find and click”.
Despite this, sometimes the tasks aren’t always clear. I had difficulties finding some of the tasks or objects and had to Google the answers to progress further in the game. Once you know what the task is, it is obvious. However, since some places or items needed to be approached at a certain angle to highlight the option to click, it meant that when I approached it wrong, I would miss it.
However, this took only a little away from the game itself since I could still progress forward in the game. And let’s be honest, I’m a bit dumb sometimes, and there is a higher chance that I was missing them rather than the game hiding them. No joke, I spent about 10 minutes looking for one item in the first room and eventually found it; I walked past it at least 15 times.
Audio
The voice acting in this was really good. Matthew’s actor did really well. His voice suited the stereotypical police officer role, and you could hear points where the emotion was bleeding through.
Evelynn’s voice actress was good at portraying the slightly naïve newbie officer, but as the game progressed, it was clear in her voice when the doubt in Matthew started to creep in.
And “Judge”, I loved him! He was so interesting. His voice conveyed perfectly to superiority complex this character had!
As for general audio, it was well-balanced and suited each room/scene perfectly. There was always a point where I felt like I was being pulled out of the game due to the audio needing to be more clunky. It fits perfectly in the background.
Finally, a massive shout out to the baby sound for wee Joey! I couldn’t figure out how to stop his crying because it was so loud and real sounding. Honestly, I don’t know how actual parents function like normal people. This was a game, and I could feel my brain powering off.
Audience
I think I would say this game is suited towards Adults and mid to older teens. I think young teens could play Summerland and enjoy it but appreciate the Philosophy side of the game a bit more. Knowing about the subject or being old enough to understand it makes the game more fun fully. Especially when it comes to appreciating “Judge”.
Difficulty
The game is a simple point-and-click game, so it is very easy to play. As usual, the hardest part for me was actually finding the objectives to progress in the game. However, that is entirely down to me and not the game.
It’s an easy-going game with an interesting and engaging story and characters. Most brain power is used to follow the objectives and problem-solve how to get to a place or complete the objective.
Controls
The controls for Summerland land are your typical WASD and mouse. Nothing too difficult. The shift key to run is super useful since Matthew sometimes walks slower than a lazy snail. The F key also hints at what you need to do. This was beneficial for me as sometimes it took me forever to complete tasks, and halfway through, I would forget what I was supposed to be doing.
Story
The story was interesting. As I’ve said, it follows Matthew as he is taken through certain key memories that lead up to his death while also discussing the morality of his situation.
It is a very interesting concept, but a recognisable one. Once you die, you are subjected to a court-like judgement to decide whether you are good or evil. It forces the player to think of morality to continue. By the end of the game, the player thinks about how morality cannot always be seen as simply good or evil.
This idea is portrayed perfectly through the story with Matthew. It explores the idea of the moral grey area with a story and timeline that has been seen to happen time and time again in real life!
The story is very well thought out and executed brilliantly!
Game Time
The game time was the perfect length. The story would have felt like it was pulling teeth; however, any shorter, the story would have felt too rushed. Summerland has a good game time that allows the player to explore the character and story without being forced to do loads and still finish the game in a reasonable time.
Obviously, the game can take longer. I enjoy wandering in games (when I can, horror doesn’t always allow this blissful joy), so I took longer in some rooms. However, if you know how to find all the objectives, you are just waiting for the right bit of dialogue to finish, and then you can continue.
Price
This is the best part; IT’S FREE! Yes, free! Summerland is a free-to-play game on Steam. I’m sure the creator keeps it free to play at all times. This makes it brilliant as a wee teaser into what the creator can do. I’ve looked at more of their games since and found a few other free-to-play games (at the time I looked, they may not stay that way).
Bugs
In my first play, I never encountered any issues. It was smooth sailing.
However, I forgot to take screenshots for this post, so I had to hop back in to grab some quickly and was entering the hallway to room 3 when I suddenly fell through the floor. I had to exit the game. This was the only bug/issue I ran into, but it wasn’t during a proper playthrough, so it made no difference to me.
Since this is a free-to-play game, it isn’t that big of a deal, and it was a small bug. I’ve experienced a bigger and nastier bug in Skyrim, and that game is like £40 to £50 on steam! So, if the big is less frequent and intrusive than Skyrim’s bugs, it’s okay in my books!
Fun Factor/Replay Ability
The game was definitely fun! I love philosophy, so exploring that theme was something I enjoyed, especially in a game. I would probably play it again if I was in the mood for it or wanted to write more about it. However, since it is a linear story, there would be no surprises. I might play it again and choose opposite answers in the philosophy rooms to see if it changes Judge’s dialogue at the end.
Conclusion/My Opinion
Overall, the game is a good wee game that explores morality using a storyline that most of us are aware of, but this time we are asked to actively make choices based on how we interpret the story’s morality. I would love to see a multi-choice ending, even if it was just one or two other endings.
Information & Rating
Rating: 5/7
Total Steam Play Time: 110 minutes
Did it run with ease? Yes, with a couple of minor hiccups.
Name: Summerland
Publisher: FYRE Games
Developer: FYRE Games
Edition: Base Game
Genres: Adventure, Free to Play, Indie, Walking Simulator, First Person,
My Gaming Laptop Specs
Graphics
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 2060
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1660 Ti
Processor
Up to AMD Ryzen™ 7 4800H
Display
15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS (144 Hz / <6 ms Response Time / 100% sRGB / 300 nits / Dolby Vision™ Enabled)
15.6″ FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS (60 Hz / 100% sRGB / 300 nits)
