Schim is a creative and visually stunning platformer, but it suffers from some repetitive gameplay.
Schim, a highly anticipated game this year, proved to be an enjoyable experience for me. This charming platformer features unique creatures called Schims, which inhabit every object and living being in the game. These frog-like entities rely on their host for sustenance, but can become lost if the host is neglected, damaged, or undergoing significant changes.
You play as Schim, a stand-out person who is going through a difficult spell in her life. No prizes if you guess the goal is to reconnect with them. You’ll have to navigate some treacherous environments to do so, but the catch is that you can only swim through shadows and jump from blob to blob. If you miss a jump, you can do one extra small jump to reach it.
Developers Ewoud van der Werf and Nils Slijkerman play with this idea in happy ways. You can jump between trees and animal shadows one minute and use a bounce house to travel an extra distance the next. None of this was incredibly difficult, although it did take me a while to hit the timing of the jumps between the conveyor belts at factory level. I found some of the other mechanics to be mildly frustrating, such as launching Schim in the right direction from a spinning clothesline.
The game is at its most creative and engaging when playing with inconsistent light sources and diffuse and disappearing shadows. There are some inventive ideas here, many of which are executed flawlessly. Although Schim (which is styled SCHiM) has an underlying cheerfulness, it has a surprisingly compelling narrative that touches on mental illness and the struggles of ordinary people to survive.
Unfortunately, I felt Schim was too repetitive overall. It doesn’t do enough with its core mechanics, and. tThe city environment had too many stages and too many similar objects to jump. This bogged down what could have been a tighter and more rewarding experience. By the halfway mark, I was more than ready for Schim to contact a human—not a great sign for a game that only takes about three hours to complete.
My main consideration is impeccable aesthetics. Each stage uses a pair of primary colors and different shades of black to depict shadows, objects and figures. Music, animations and backgrounds come together wonderfully. It often felt like I was playing live art. The visuals make for real lock screen material and speak to the beauty that can emerge from minimalistic, stylized renderings.
Schim has a lot of great ideas with a touching and rewarding ending. I just wish the journey there was more consistently enjoyable.
Schim is out now for PC, PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch. (It also runs smoothly on Steam Deck.)
