I recently played Grunn, which has PSX-era graphics, but its concept and execution were fantastic. Threshold gave me a similar feeling while playing, and now both have become two of my favorite games of 2024. Although the game is not particularly long, the way it uses the time it has and the creepy way it tells its story leaves a strong impression. You play as someone who works at the Border Post. Most of the time you work alone, but those moments are also an opportunity to understand what is really going on.
In the background of the Border Post, a train passes at high speed, carrying a steady stream of cargo. In the beginning, you have no idea what is being transported across the country. Your only task is to ensure that the train continues its journey, which you achieve by blowing the whistle. The problem is that air is rare, so you must always have a supply of air canisters on hand. If you jump or run too much, your lungs will empty quickly. Whistling without a canister nearby can cause your body to start failing.
You can get canisters in several ways: by picking up tickets from a trackside ticket station and feeding them into a machine in a storage building, fishing in a river that runs parallel to the track and transferring them to another machine using a bucket, or finding canisters scattered around a bleak work area. That cycle of whistling to keep the train moving and get yourself air can feel repetitive or even monotonous, but the story slowly unfolds through the new details you uncover.
Mo, the guy who works with you and occasionally gives you advice, can be summoned by the elevator, but your curiosity might upset him or even make him angry (ask him about Ni, the previous worker before you, at your own risk). You have to choose carefully when to summon him and when to explore safely, because everything could go wrong. Threshold gets pretty sinister as you uncover the secrets of the Border Post, and one part during my first playthrough completely blew me away with the way it was portrayed on screen. Let’s just say I found out what was going on with the train.
There’s also a sealed tunnel, a grave, a mysterious cabin that’s strangely locked, and messages written in blood. Find planks around the terrain to repair walls or build ladders, and observe certain points of interest to trigger short cutscenes that can shock you. The game has multiple endings depending on the choices you make while playing, and even though it only takes a few hours to get through, I was completely enthralled with each new discovery, excited and nervous about what I might find next.
Threshold is another game from a single developer that achieves so much with limited time and technology. Games don’t need the best visuals, they need good ideas, and Julien Eveillé has done a fantastic job here on all fronts. It’s not exactly a horror game, but it will leave you with an uneasy feeling about what you find, and while many will want more story or more content for such a short playing time, this is one of those great indie games that defies expectations.
The post Threshold appeared first on ITNetwork.
Source: www.itnetwork.rs
