After seeing the announcement trailer for White Shadows last year at Gamescom, my interest was pretty quickly piqued. I’m always on board for a Limbo or Inside kind of platformer where the controls are simple and the world is grim and weird. Add in a strong splash of noir visuals alongside a monochromatic palette, charming influence from Tim Burton, and a story that’s meant to portray some of society’s biggest problems and you have me completely hooked.

White Shadows is the debut work of developer Monokel, centering around a small Ravengirl who lives in a dystopian city where supposedly “all animals are equal”. Nonetheless, it’s quite obvious that birds aren’t a part of that mantra and have been given the role of the dregs of this 1984-inspired society. Her story sees her travel through the city as she does her best to escape the watchful eyes of the wolves.

The gameplay is as simple as you’d expect. It is a 2.5D platformer so there is a whole lot of moving to the sides along with some vertical traversal here and there. There aren’t a lot of controls in the game either and you can play easily play it with one hand on PC. You use WASD keys to move, the shift key to interact, and the space bar to jump.

I wouldn’t call it a difficult game by any means. The puzzles are pretty simple and the platforming is forgiving. Most deaths I had were purely on me, not that it matters too much though because it’s also a pretty short game you can finish within a few hours.

It’s not the first dystopian story and it likely won’t be the last, but it tries to separate itself by tackling a very societally-accepting world of violence along with a wonderfully noir visual style. Since it’s the visuals that really catch the eye, I have to go over that first.

The city the game takes place in features steampunk elements as well as influences from the early-to-mid 20th-century. Almost everything is transported with rail-based vehicles, blimps, or through large pneumatic tubes. There are plenty of giant airships that float by with the help of multiple propellers that adorn themselves with wolf heads to remind everyone of the imposing societal ladder. Throughout the city is the unmistakable glow of neon signs that provide much light and a further reminder that this world is a dystopia.

If there is one aspect in particular that really helps to nail the atmosphere, I would say it’s the lighting. When you have an absence of color with a monochromatic visual for example, lighting and shadows can seemingly have such a larger impact on a scene. Monokel very much understands this because there were so many moments where I just wanted to stop and take in the environment.

Complimenting that are some wonderful camera angles where it tilts or wraps around during certain moments. Its usage is very simple and by itself isn’t too special, but it’s always used to highlight something. It always made me appreciate the lighting and how perfectly everything is placed.

That being said, the lighting isn’t perfect. Sometimes the lighting is very bright and it’s a little strenuous on the eyes. On top of this, there was the issue of it looking a little muddled in certain areas where there were a lot of light sources or at least some very strong ones. I assumed that it was a contrast issue and thankfully it only bugged me a few times so I didn’t mind too much.

To accentuate the older era influences that you see in all of the environments, there is an older era of music used. Admittedly it’s quite a bit older though as it’s from the 1800’s era. Just like its trailers, the game uses quite a few classical music pieces.

I’m torn on their use because it feels a little out of place at times. A couple of them broke the immersion for a brief moment when they started playing. At the same time, it did help to make certain scenes remind me of watching an old black and white movie and I felt like that was the intended effect. Either way, hearing “Ride of the Valkyrie” or “Flight of the Bumblebee” during any scene is a bonafide way to add character and intensity.

With the gameplay and audiovisual elements out of the way, all that’s left to talk about is the story. It is both an important part of this game and a great transition towards what I wasn’t a fan of.

That’s not at all to say I didn’t like the story! I really enjoyed the world-building and I wanted to know as much as I could about the city that it all takes place in. After learning the general plot points and beating the game, it felt like the potential just wasn’t quite met.

I’ve been trying not to directly compare the game with Limbo or Inside because I think even using those games as influences, White Shadows can stand on its own. However, I think they’re worth comparing how they all approach their narratives though. Both of those games have their own story to tell, but they’re weird and there’s enough environmental storytelling that players can form their own opinions and theories after playing.

While this rings true for much of White Shadows, there is a strong story being told here and I felt like it needed more context and presentation. There’s a moment where the process to provide some answers, also raises a multitude of questions. It’s too complicated of a story to be coy and hands-off with so many plot elements and it suffers because of this.

I’ll also freely admit that there are a couple of elements in the story that I didn’t fully understand. My potential theories are also not that interesting, which is why I’m hoping there are obvious signs I missed that someone else can easily point out to me in a YouTube video once people can get their hands on the game.

Possibly related to this, I noticed that if you look back at its announcement trailer there is a strong breakdown of the story available in the description. It gives names to places that are never properly named and provides explanations that you don’t see until the latter half of playing (read at your discretion). It also mentions plot points that fit very well, although aren’t properly expressed. It is possible that these plot points were dropped or changed. Due to the story structure though, it’s difficult to tell.

Another reason why it needs more presentation is that tackles big subjects and does so in strong ways that require a content warning. I’m always thankful when a game has a content warning just to let people know what they’re in for in case the game might have triggering content. Sometimes it can set the stage for a game though as it did for me when I started this up.

The content warning for this game kindly let me know that it contained “depictions of racism, suicide, violence towards women and children, animal cruelty, forced labor, and xenophobia“. That is quite the list to set expectations for. From what I had seen with the trailers and as well as from the demos that they had on Steam, I was more than expecting this kind of content already with a keen interest in how they handled it.

After beating it, I had to go back and look at gameplay videos because I noticed that the messaging wasn’t as brutally strong anymore. In a game called White Shadows where the darkness of the birds is wrong and unclean and it’s best to take a “light bath” each day according to the Ministry of Light, there’s a solid chance you’ll understand this is a euphemism for racism. It was a lot more on the nose before though, as the Ministry of Light was just called White Wash Industries. There’s also a screenshot of a sign saying “Whites Only” that did not make it into the final package.

It seems like the game had more brutal messaging towards other topics as well. The end of its demo had you walk by a sign that says “Don’t be a burden, kill yourself today” as pigs lined up towards a “Suicide Box”. I don’t need to explain why that is a powerful statement and scene. In the completed game it’s replaced with messages from “The Founder” who thanks you for your service and tells you to drink a beverage called Youglow (which was previously called Holy Spirit). The suicide box is also replaced with something else.

I completely understand why they toned down some of the content as a lot of the messaging previously used was incredibly strong. The implications are still there and in the place of some of them, there is messaging that supports the overall theme of oppression that many can liken to 1984. Make no mistake, there’s still plenty of messed-up implications and situations to witness during your time with this game.

When I look back at how brutal it was before though, part of me kind of wishes that was the game I played. I don’t support any of the awful messages in this world and I absolutely understand that it touches upon sensitive topics. That being said, I’m a big proponent of challenging what’s taboo and sensitive when it comes to crafting stories and for the sake of discussion. There is a fine line between challenging and just being edgy, but I appreciate when the punches aren’t pulled (or at least not too much).

Unfortunately, I feel that by reeling in on certain subjects and providing more of a general focus on the 1984 elements, it doesn’t stand out as much. There’s plenty of dystopian stories in various media and a lot of the elements in White Shadows are typical parts of the dystopian genre that are easily overlooked to focus more on the general “big brother is watching” theme. Having a dystopian story that focused more on racism is a great setting for storytelling and more importantly for providing the opportunity for real-life discourse. The potential for that seems like it may be squandered here, but I would love to be wrong about that.

I want to reiterate that I didn’t dislike the story. Even though the latter half wasn’t as concrete as I would have liked and I am curious about what story elements may have changed throughout development, I did like the story and its presentation. Truthfully, the only part of the game I didn’t enjoy was the technical issues I came across.

My first playthrough of the game had a lot of glitches. The most common were stuttering and framerate issues. There were also a couple of times where something I was standing on just disappeared and threw me into a void. Another weird issue I had was that a screen filter applied during one segment did not leave when it was supposed to and remained for a few checkpoints until I realized it shouldn’t be there. A quick reload fixed all these weird problems and when playing the segments over again to replicate the issues, the game worked just fine.

It is worth noting that the developer did provide an updated patch that I played a second full playthrough with. It fixed the problems I had with stuttering and I didn’t encounter any of the weird problems from my initial playthrough. However, since my attempts to replicate those issues before the patch was sent out did not yield results, I can’t say with certainty that those issues are not still present.

There were other issues I still did encounter after the patch. At one point I was unable to jump, although crouching down seemed to fix that. Similarly, my little ravengirl got stuck facing only left and I could not turn her around. Interacting with a switch ended up fixing her though. The patch also did not fix any problems with pop-ins and clipping, of which there are a noticeable amount of occurrences.

White Shadows was marketed as a “modern fable” that acts as a mirror into our own “f***** up world.” Given how messed up our world is and how applicable many of these issues are, I’d say it accomplishes its goal while also creating its own weird and grim setting. I would have liked to see it handle the themes as strongly as it initially intended, but I’m happy it took them on at all. The stellar quality and passion are marred by models clipping through each other, although that didn’t stop me from taking a whole lot of screenshots.

Both the visuals and the subject matter make for an ambitious project and as the first game made by Monokel, it’s a pretty strong work to debut with. I hope people enjoy it and talk about it and I can’t wait to see what the development team works on next.

A PC review copy of White Shadows was provided by Monokel for this review.

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

White Shadows

0.00

7.3

Score

7.3/10

Pros

• Fantastic Visuals
• Social Critiquing Story
• Simple Gameplay
• Short and Sweet

Cons

• Story Doesn't Hit as Hard as You Would Expect
• Models Clipping Into Each Other
• Occasional Weird Glitches