Fracter might just be another indie-puzzler on the Switch, but it has a eerie enough atmosphere to make it worth picking up on sale.
Gameplay
The goal of Fracter is to solve puzzles, that use shifting terrain and beacons of light, to reassemble your soul. Yes. Your soul.
The game starts with the protagonist looking into a mirror and watching their soul split into light and dark specters that spread themselves out over the course of the seven dungeons. The dark parts of your soul are the very creepy enemies that you must avoid. The light parts of your soul are the pieces that you must collect and reassemble.
It’s possible to beat the game without collecting all of the souls, but finding them is recommended. Getting all of them is relatively easy and rewards the players with a bonus ending.
Puzzles
The puzzles in Fracter are fun and creative. A few of them even stumped me for a moment. However, ultimately, they were all pretty easy and the game flew by. The Switch doesn’t reveal play time until ten days after you start the game, but I would estimate that Fracter is less than two hours.
Atmosphere
The atmosphere in Fracter is the best part of it. It’s an eerie, monochrome world with a minimalist soundtrack that’s filled with the spooky, spider-like ghosts of the player’s soul. It’s definitely cool. The only drawback is that, in handheld mode, I found myself spending more time looking at the glare of my own reflection than at the actual game. This game works best on a TV or at night.
Additionally, the game puts poems before and after each level that really help to add to the existentialism of the game’s philosophy.
Thanks to 4L Games and The Quantum Astrophysicists Guild for the review code! You can buy the game here on the Nintendo eShop.
