Difficulty:

Easy

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Too short"

It seems that the Vita is quickly becoming the place for Indie game developers. Quick and cheap games are becoming quite popular. The latest of these games to appeal to me was Thomas Was Alone. It looked like a simple game but was it a little too simple?

Graphics
This is one area where it is probably the most basic of any game I have ever played, and that's harking back to the Commodore era. It is simply all blocks, with perhaps a touch of lighting here and there, but nothing that amazes the senses in any way.

Sound
Again, another basic component of this game. The only thing that sets this game apart is the narration through-out, which is quite amusing. Although you can quite easily play this game with the sound off, I found myself wanting to hear the narration because it was just a pleasant change and gave each block a story.

Gameplay
The aim of this game is to get all the blocks from A to B. Each block has a special ability and you may need to use the varying abilities to aid the less fortunate blocks that, for example, are unable to jump high. So you may have to create a staircase with a few other blocks to help get to the higher platforms. This is the clever aspect of this game. I found that there were no real head-scratchers here but there are some that may require a little more attention paid to them.
There are 100 levels and while that may sound a lot, you can race through this game in just 3 or 4 hours. So the appeal of spending just $10 seems quite high at first but then you come to the realization that the game may not last that long and I found that a little disappointing.

Final Thoughts
The only issue with this game would be the length, it does seem a little too short, but perhaps there will be some DLC coming. In saying that, I really enjoyed playing this game. The narration tries to give each block a personality and adds a touch of humor to an otherwise basic game. Despite its simplicity and shortcomings Thomas Was Alone very easy to play and hard to put down.