Umbra: Shadow of Death Demo

2D platformers have remained popular over the years, even if technology advanced beyond the limitations of old consoles. The genre is just too versatile, even today, which is why so many indie developers can score a massive bestseller with the right combination of gameplay and fun. However, it is also very easy to miss all the right parts and come up with something a bit too awkward.

Umbra: Shadow of Death is a 2D platformer very similar to Limbo, both in gameplay and visual design. In fact, you could probably confuse the two of them if they were side-by-side, which is not great news for the game at hand. While it is OK to draw inspiration from your favorite games, people do not want to play the same thing all over again, not to mention the fact that they’ll quickly try to find flaws in the copycat.

The story starts with two sisters taking a stroll on a beautiful day, when all of a sudden alien robots descend from the sky and kidnap them both. Luckily, one of them escapes, and it is her job to rescue her sister from the robots. Thus, the journey is riddled with traps and enemies, and you must overcome them in order to get your sister back and return home safely.

Just like in Limbo, the puzzles are designed to be both fun and frustrating at the same time. You have to interact with objects and think about ways to use them in order to keep on advancing through the levels. Traps are hidden and difficult to see most of the time, so it’s a good thing that the auto-save feature allows you to respawn at various checkpoints.

As far as the controls are concerned, they feel a bit sluggish most of the time, but that’s probably because your character is a young girl who’s not trained to deal with spike-filled pits and huge robots. The artwork is almost the same as it was in Limbo, except a little bit barren and boring sometimes, probably because the backgrounds do not impress.

In the end, Umbra: Shadow of Death is not very well polished, and it needs some more work to become decent. Right now, it just feels like a cheap Limbo clone. However, with enough effort and dedication, the developers can turn things around for the better.