Nihilumbra

In Brief

Nihilumbra is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer, beautifully hand drawn graphics with a cute but creepy atmosphere.

If you win a key for Nihilumbra, please give some feedback about your opinion of the game, for example, what you liked or disliked about it, or how it could be improved from your point of view . If you don't like this genre at all, please explain why. What, improvements, if any, would change your opinion? There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality?

If you don't win a key, don't mind playing games via Steam or miss the offer totally you can get the game 24/7 via Steam HERE. It usually costs £4.99/$7.99; however until the end of the first day )i.e. Monday 14th Novemeber there's 70% off so you can pick it up for £1.49/$2.39. There is also a browser demo available from the developers site HERE

Discover the beautiful world of Nihilumbra and join Born on his adventure to find himself whilst trying to escape from his inevitable curse.

Born was created from the absolute nothingness: The Void. But somehow he separates himself from the black emptiness and appears in the world. This is where his long odyssey begins, in which he will learn how to use the colors around him to gain powerful abilities and transform the world.

However, his experiences come at a high price. The Void must be one. It seeks to reclaim him and will never stop chasing him, destroying everything in its path along the way.

To survive, Born will have to condemn the earth he walks to its inevitable obliteration by The Void...

Advise: Nihilumbra has been designed in a way that everyone can enjoy its story, even without previous experience with puzzle games. However, players seeking for a challenge will find it on the second half of the game: the Void Mode.

Edited and amended reference accessed HERE. 14th Nov 2016

Assuming you win a Steam key for Nihilumbra, once you've found it (should be sent to the email you used to enter the giveaway) you have to activate the game via your Steam client. Once activated it will be permanently tied to your Steam profile and you'll be able to install the game at any time, anywhere on any computer, so long as you can validate who you are (usually via emails etc). If you don't have a Steam account you will first have to download and install the Steam client HERE

Then create a Steam profile/account. Once that has been completed you can input the Steam code that you've received (after completing the form filling) via the game button along the top of the Steam client, (located between friends and Help - see image below). From the drop down menu select 'Activate a product on Steam'. This opens a product activation window. Just follow the prompts to complete activation. Once the Steam code has been accepted, the game will be permanently associated with your Steam account and can be installed any time you wish.

If you have a problem installing or activating or getting Defend your Life! to work, please visit the problems section over in the Game Discussion forums, which I've now incorporated into the FAQ's thread, and which you can find HERE

Key Features:

The ability to change ground physics using five different colors.

Use five worlds as your canvas and transform them at your will.

Original soundtrack composed by Álvaro Lafuente.

Unlock a great surprise by completing the game. Replayability assured.

Voice Acting

Levels adapted to widescreen.

New HD Textures.

New HD Textures.

Improved and Fully Remastered Soundtrack.

Art gallery.

Re-imagined and intuitive controls and menus.

Improved atmospheric and weather effects.

Nihilumbra is a side-scrolling puzzle platformer that follows the story of Born, an entity that has escaped from The Void to explore our world but is now being hunted down. The story is told through large text appearing across the screen and a deep masculine voice-over which thankfully can be switched off. The voice-over might appeal to some but, for me, the voice-over exposed weaknesses in the narrative.

As you progress through each stage, the narrator details how each area is destroyed by The Void because of your actions. The narrator berates and belittles you, blaming you for the destruction of this world and it’s this direction in storytelling that sets this game apart. There is no hand holding, no cute bunnies or cheerful music, this is dark, sinister storytelling which is really appealing, particularly on a console known for its bright, colourful games like Mario.

There are five worlds for you to play through, with players gaining a new colour in each. Born is essentially powerless, you cannot jump or punch enemies in your path, all you can do is evade and use the power of the colours to help you progress. Controls are pretty simple – control stick for movement, A for Jump and the colour wheel controlled either by the touch screen or the L/R buttons. Draw your finger across walls, floors or ceilings and your selected colour will be painted – it’s that simple.

Abilities are obtained from a flower in each world and the puzzles in such worlds are primarily focused on that acquired within them. The first colour you obtain is in ‘Frozen Cliffs’ giving you the ability (not surprisingly) to create ice. You can use it to cause enemies to slide into the abyss or help move objects, but it’s largely used to give you more speed and the ability to jump larger gaps. In the second world ‘Living Forest’, you obtain the green colour which gives you the ability to bounce. The higher the platform is that you jump from, the higher your bounce will be. The brown colour obtained in ‘Ash Desert’ gives you the ability to make surfaces sticky, meaning that you can stick to walls and slow enemies down.

Whereas the red ability from ‘Volcano’ is the only colour that gives you an attack mechanism, allowing you to set objects and enemies on fire. I enjoyed this ability most as it gave me a bit more time to think about how to solve a puzzle without the worry of enemies killing me. The final ability obtained in ‘The City’ is the yellow colour, which gives you the power to conduct electricity allowing you to switch machines on and off. Once you’ve obtained each power, the puzzles are primarily focused on that one ability which is good for helping you get to grips and learning about all the ways that they can be used. But, at the same time, there are very few moments where you get to take full advantage of all of them at once. There is never really any puzzle that requires you to use any more than two of them, which is a bit of a disappointment. Nevertheless, the puzzles are great and BeautiFun have done a wonderful job of creating puzzles that make use of them, it just would have been good to have more puzzles that required you to use multiple colours at once.

Each world is relatively short with the main story taking roughly 2-3 hours to complete. Upon completion, ‘Void Mode’ is unlocked and that is where the real challenge begins. In Void mode, the aim is to bring back each world from The Void. Some of the puzzles are the same, but there are a lot of new ones so it’s not an exact replay of the game on a harder difficulty. To be honest, I only completed a handful of levels in this mode because the difficulty level was very unforgiving to the point where there was no enjoyment in trying to complete them all. It is disappointing that BeautiFun have managed to make such a beautiful game with an interesting story, but have the difficulty completely skewed with the first half really easy and becoming too difficult in the second.

Graphically, this is a gorgeously hand painted game. A lot of attention and a lot of love have gone into the style of each world. Picturesque hand-drawn backgrounds and the implementation of foreground graphics adds to the feeling that this is a real world you’re exploring.

The styling of the game is both cute and creepy so that it can appeal to a wider audience but still maintain an unique charm. Frozen Cliffs was by far the most beautiful world to explore with it’s snow capped mountains and caves. When you find the flower that bestows you with each power, you are transported to a new world for a brief moment, the various styles of these worlds are just beautiful that it’s impossible to not just sit for a moment and take it all in. I would recommend this game for it’s graphics alone.

The soundtrack also adds to the experience with melodies that perfectly match each world, with everything having a haunting feel to it that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Tim Burton movie.

Reference accessed HERE. Original review written by Liam McNally June 8th 2015, edited and added to by Whiterabbit-uk 14th Nov 2016

There are lots of reviews for this game on the net. You can see the Steam community reviews of Nihilumbra (over 1800 very positive reviews) HERE, and if you want to see some game-play you can lots of videos of game play via You tube HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Even for it's full price (assuming you failed to win a key), Nihilumbra is an excellent puzzle platformer. I love the art style, which is what attracted me to the game when it was released last year (I bought it on release). It's since been updated by the developer to include good voice acting, HD textures as well as others additions such as better intuitive controls and a remastered soundtrack. Well worth putting your name down for this one and if you want a bargain, go get it now while it's still on sale (sale ends tonight Monday 14th Nov, for less than the price of a cup of coffee from my sons school you can get a key for this game via Steam (it's usually £4.99/$7.99 at the moment it's £1.49/$2.39). If you're not sure you'd like the game, then go check out the browser demo over on the developers site HERE.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the developer BeautyFun Games for giving away 100 keys for this excellent Puzzle Platformer and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games, in this case a Steam key.

The problems section that used to be posted here in the Game review is now included in the Game Discussion FAQ's thread; which you can find HERE.

I've updated the games section that used to be posted with the review. The thread is now called 'Weekly round up of game deals', formerly the games section of the weekly reviews. You can find the new thread (which I've posted in the sticky section of the game discussion forums to make it easier to find if you are perusing the game discussion forums) HERE.

If today's game was not to your liking, you may find other games either free or for less than the price of a cup of coffee (from your favorite coffee house) via the 'Weekly Roundup of Game Deals' thread which I've posted a link to above, or HERE.

The latest free game over on Origin has now changed to the excellent (though now dated) RPG Dungeon Keeper. You can get it HERE. Please note that you do require the Origin game platform to be able to download and install the game.

Also available via Failmid's site is a non - Steam key for a Starter Pack for the free to play game Wauies The Petshop Game which you'll find HERE. The deal ends Monday afternoon (UK time) and Ubisoft has been celebrating 30 years in the business by giving away games every month since June. Novembers game is Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon which is free and the Ubisoft uPlay client, both of which are free. You just have to sign into your uPlay account and look for the Ubisoft turning 30 link HERE, or if you don't have a uPlay account create an account HERE. Click on the green Join the Club button, get your free account, then get your free copy of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon. I think this is the last freebies from Ubisoft for a while.

The Indie Gala store has some fantastic deals in their store with some titles 90% off. You can find them all Angel Express

DIG are still offering free Steam keys for Hacker Evolution Time Dimensions and Crystals of time, though you cannot access the deals directly from the main site anymore, but they are still live via the following links:
To get keys for these two games you will have to do similar activities as you do for those Steam games that have been offered for the past several months over on the game giveaway site. You can find those free Steam key deals HERE (Hacker Evolution: Time Dimensions and HERE (Crystals of Time). Watch out for a new giveaway called rail adventures a fast paced action/racing game in a minecart