A simple but engaging title, Thomas Was Alone proves fancy graphics do not make a great story shine.
You might think you play as Thomas throughout the game, but that is only partially true, as the titular character is joined by all manner of friends on his adventure. The characters, however, are not people or monsters, aliens or zombies, they are blocks. Just blocks. Thomas, for example, is a small red rectangle, with each character a different variation on that - some are squares, others are tall, thin rectangles, but all are distinctly four sided.
Sound simple? well you would be right. Should it put you off the game? hell no. For all the talk in the industry of only being able to tell a proper, emotional, human story in a game through more realistic looking humans, Thomas Was Alone is the complete antithesis. You may spend the entire game playing as one coloured blocks that only jump and move side to side, but the game portrays a emotional and engaging story as Thomas embarks on his adventure.
The gameplay itself, is, in all honesty, relatively simple. However, a lot of the levels have you controlling multiple characters, and the challenge comes from figuring out how to use each one effectively to reach the goals for each character, which could be spread across the level.
The voice acting, while consisting of only one actor, is top notch, and conveys the story perfectly. Though there some between level text that helps to fill in what is happening 'outside' of the game too, and it all adds up to one of the more thought provoking titles in recent memory.
To say the game was created by just one man, in his spare time, shows what the indie scene is capable of, and it is understandable why Danny Wallace, who narrates the game, has earned a BAFTA award for the title. It really is that good.
The two biggest problems with the game, though, are that it is really quite short, with a spare evening being required to finish it in one sitting, and the fact that all though the story is for the most part brilliant, it just sort of ends without much fan fare.
Some may argue that this was the perfect way to end it, and I can see their point, but for me the game needed a more overt sense of closure, as it just appeared to end for no reason. I might have missed the point, but that was my take on it.
Picking up the game on either PS3 or Vita unlocks the it for use on the other system, which is a great deal. I played it on the Vita and fully intend to play it again on my upcoming holiday, and I don't say that often about games.