Sonder - gamescom Preview

Sonder is the perfect example of the free reign indie developers have. There are no constraints forced upon them from publishers and their specific demands based on extensive market research or industry insider knowledge. Instead, the guys from KAMAi Media have taken the tried and tested episodic formula, but moulded it into an unusual and innovative experience.

Taking place exclusively on a space station sent to a distant planet, players are woken up from their cryogenically frozen state to find they are still months away from their destination. What woke them up? What’s going on? Why is one pod destroyed? Why are there more people here then when they left? As you explore the environment, there are dozens of questions to be answered, all leading to the truth behind the company that sent the players into deep space.

You notice that I said players, and that was intentional. That’s because there is no ‘main’ character in Sonder; or if you prefer, every character is the main character. You can take control of whomever you like, and are encouraged to do so. This isn’t just the same person with a different skin though; the ways in which characters see and perceive the world are entirely different. In the brief demo I was shown, two characters awoke from cryo sleep and as they examined the remaining pods, the on screen prompt was entirely different. One character's read “that person wasn’t here when I left”, while the other character recognised the extra pod and saw nothing strange in the opening few minutes. Just this small snippet shows how diverse the game can be from different perspectives.

Every character perceives everything in the world differently and that is why Sonder encourages you to take the role all of them, to get as much information and detail about the world as you can. And this is where more of Sonder’s unique features come to fruition. Because every choice, of every character is so important and impactful, the developers don’t want to you to “choose yourself into a corner”. With this in mind, an unlimited rewind mechanic means you can see how every choice alters the overall narrative, you can go as far back as the beginning and replay everything through, changing whatever you want. This is a brilliant idea, but I can't help but feel it will slow down the pace of the game and remove itself from the episodic formula which gives every player their own story. It may have been something gamers have liked the idea of in this particular game, but whether they would actually use it is a whole other question.

KAMAi has also included a ‘movie mode’ into Sonder, which is something I thoroughly enjoyed to watch in progress. Essentially, this lets you sit back and watch the action unfold in a completely random way. Acting as something of an alternative to rewind mode you control nothing but the camera. You can see an entirely different story from your own, and have absolutely zero input. Again, another brilliantly innovative idea, but one I really can’t see being used religiously.

Built entirely on their own engine, a series of complex and interconnecting narrative webs, the game is heavily inspired by 1970’s sci-fi and the low-hi-tech setting of a (now) dated space station. It’s instantly familiar if you seen the likes of Alien or Prometheus with oversized computers and mixtures of grey panels and flashing lights. The characters themselves though looked very average and incomplete, but the diversity of body shapes, skin colours and attire was a pleasant surprise with the finished article likely to be more polished come full release.

When Sonder releases it will consist of six episodes of around 20 minutes each. It may not sound like a lot, but with the various characters and replayability that I’ve previously mentioned, you’ll be able to extract so much more time from each episode. It certainly looks like something to keep an eye-on for the future.

---

Sonder is coming to PC with a console release date yet to be announced.

The first episode will be on Early Access soon, with an official release coming later in the year. KAMAi hope to release each episode within 2-3 months of the previous one.