The young one | Review – The world after the climate crisis

Moving into one post-apocalyptic world This is a consequence of this ecological catastrophe shown in its most terrible version. Your protagonist is one of the few surviving children.

Raised by wolves and to run free, just like a kind of modern-day MowgliHer alter ego will constantly flee from the threat of the same ultra-rich who had the opportunity to escape to Mars and save themselves from planetary catastrophe.

The Cub, a story of lost lives and memories

The levels are interspersed with a few short films that tell the story of the protagonist's origins and the world in which he was born, raised and adapted.

However, it must be said that the most interesting excerpts – strictly narratively speaking – are not only the documents that you find in the game environments, but also especially the stories that will come from a radio station on Mars.

You will suddenly notice it a few minutes into the game after wearing an astronaut helmet recovered from a corpse. By the Radio nostalgia from Mars (which you will remember well if you are familiar with the other games in the “series”), you will hear the melancholy stories of those who inhabited the Earth or stories that explain the reasons why the planet is fading is and fleeting imitation of what it was.

Through a anti-capitalist visionwho intelligently points the finger at large corporations and against the oppressive logic of the powerful who strive for resources and wealth at the expense of everyone else, The young does it in just under four hours and outlines a game world functions and which is convincing to the core, although it encourages rather than suggests going deeper.

However, those who have difficulty with English may not have a very clear idea (the game is subtitled, however it's not in Italian) because the radio station commentator is fast and leaves no time to play fast to avoid death while some of you have to read to understand something. Of course this is not a defect, but we will report it.

Play style

If from a narrative perspective The young is rather pleasant and satisfying, but remains in its very compact and not very expanded indie dimension, some doubts inevitably arise for some Weaknesses of the game systems.

The young looks like Platformer with parkour ambitions that want to be reminiscent of the old SEGA classics of the 90s. The truth is that the work doesn't have much of a parkour character and everything just goes on by chaining a few very simple actions such as jumps, double jumps and swings over suspended bars.

Since it is a platformer that also has a moderate dose of trial and error sections, it leaves that behind not always perfect responsiveness of the controlssometimes stiffened by movements that obviously lack some connecting animations.

Sometimes it happens that you miss a jump precisely because of small delays in the input, but it must be said that if you take the measurements in the game and adjust to the timing, then it will not exactly correspond to the ideal The young becomes less problematic. There Rather low level of difficulty of the gameIn this sense, it helps to never fall into episodes of frustration.

The young provides variety with some escape sections, others that require you to quickly avoid obstacles on the way, or others that require it uses some basic stealth mechanics.

In the latter case, there is no guidance whatsoever, but it is quite clear how pillars, ruins, and gameplay elements serve to hide your character from the eyes of those hunting you. All you have to do will be sneak away in a few moments and get away with it without ever having to use anything as a weapon.

The young It's really all there: a work that is supported by its narrative and ecological messages to capture the player's interest, which inevitably doesn't meet the fairly high standards that the majority of platformers set.