SCHiM is a relaxing and thoughtful journey that fans of narrative-driven platformers will enjoy
A schim is the soul and spirit of an object, thing, or living being. Everything in the world has one. A schim should never be separated from their thing! The adventure in SCHiM is one of exploration, puzzles and reconnecting with your human companion.
Even though the story is told without words, the emotional pacing still comes across clearly. Seeing your human companion's life and their relationships unfold is kinda touching. The art style helps a lot with that and sets the tone - a limited color palette accentuates shadows and gives the modern city streets a dreamlike quality. Subtle uses of lighting, colorful textures and charming animations bring the environment to life. What's most striking though is how naturally the controls integrate haptics and adaptive triggers to enhance the experience.
The gameplay is fairly simple and this simplicity kinda hurts it, but more on that later. All you do is jump from shadow to shadow until you reach the end of the level. Every object in the levels, from buildings, trashcans, lamp posts to people walking or biking and cars, cast a shadow that your little Schim can jump inside. Jumping from one shadow to the next feels weighty and grounded thanks to subtle vibration cues. The triggers resist slightly as you prepare for longer leaps, adding satisfaction on release.
At first, it's extremely satisfying navigating this world as a little Schim. The problem is that this mechanic stays the same all throughout the game. Apart from some objects like umbrellas or clothesline ropes that can launch you up in the air so you can cover more distance, the main "jumping to shadows" loop doesn't really expand in any interesting ways that changes that loop or like nudge you into trying a different strategy to move through the levels. What I want to say with all this is that SCHiM kinda overstays its welcome and the only thing that kept me playing to completion was the excellent presentation.
Having said all that, I still recommend giving SCHiM a try. It's gorgeous to look at with a very unique artstyle supported by a very chill soundtrack. Sure, the gameplay loop gets old as it doesn't really evolve past the initial concept, but it's still quite fun to play in short bursts. Thanks for reading!
The game was reviewed on a PS5 via a promo copy provided by PR. SCHiM is available on PlayStation, Switch and PC.
