Game EXP: Alveole (PC)

 

Alveole
Systems: Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 & 5
Release Date: April 9, 2021
Publisher: North Lab
Developers: Emil Ismaylov & Denis Petrov
Time Spent: 40 Minutes
First Four Minutes

I picked up Alveole shortly after playing PULMO because I was hoping to enjoy another art game from the same developers, and this one was… different.  Different than what I was expecting, different in its gameplay mechanics, different in its message, and different stylistically in almost every way possible.  Except there was the animated black outlined figure that was also used in PULMO.  Everything that I'm going to write is going to be bare bones compared to other Game EXP articles, because, almost the less that's said about the mechanics of Alveole, the better, but we'll scratch just the surface.

Alveole is a minimalist game.  When you start, there's an exhalation of breath as the essence or spirit of your figure falls into the character lying in the middle of an all-white screen.  The screen then becomes populated with seemingly random images, all around your black-outlined figure, who is standing in what looks like a one-ton human hamster wheel.  The game is controlled by making your character jump or deciding not to jump as they run on the wheel.  Periodically, a trapezoidal obstruction appears that you can either jump over or stumble through.  What any of this means is up to the player to decipher.  A lot of the objects on the screen, though, are dynamic, so again, it's up to the player to try to recognize the cause and effect of something happening.

Because Alveole is a puzzle game, it's up to the player to figure out what all of the images surrounding the player mean, what the mechanics mean, and how jumping or not jumping affects the game.  As you play, you collect pictures that populate the middle third of the screen.  Once you have collected all sixteen pictures, the "game" is over.  And I say "game" not as a derogatory statement against Alveole, but because it feels more like an interactive art exhibit with gameplay and puzzle elements.  The biggest downside is that oftentimes, the player will be rewarded with a snapshot that they've completed one of the "tasks," but there is no immediate inclination to decipher what the player did to specifically earn that picture.  It's also a memory game, to try and remember which image that used to be above the player is now gone.

The whole "game" took me about 40 minutes, usually playing for 3-5 minutes at a time, though you could easily finish it in a single sitting if you're in the right mindset.  I can't really say that there is much replay value, maybe apart from watching someone else play and maybe giving hints when asked for to unlock some of the more potentially obscure puzzles; here's looking at you, Adventurer.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
Instrumental

MIDI Week Singles: "Maybe You'll Kill (Everybody Does)" - PULMO (NS)

 

"Maybe You'll Kill (Everybody Does)" from PULMO on Windows, Xbox Series S/X, PlayStation 4 & 5, Nintendo Switch 1 & 2 (2025)
Composers: Artem (archivariouss) Chubarkov, Areniy Shadrin
Album: PULMO Music
Label: Self/Steam
Publisher: North Lab
Developer: Emil Ismaylov, Denis Petrov

There are a lot of layers to the game PULMO, and having this song played over a typical game of "figure out the order to select the things" is a brilliant use of this original song.  Like a lot of the scenes in PULMO, you have to figure out what the puzzle or mechanic is to proceed to the next scene.  The puzzle/mechanic here is that you have to select the correct order of the nine people to continue through.  If you mess up the order, the puzzle resets.  This is where PULMO excels.  When you select a particular person, there is a brief flash with spikes emanating out of their body, and then they sit down in a crouched position.  If you guessed the incorrect order, that fallen person immediately stands back up.  The likelihood that you guess the correct order for all nine people, while not impossible, is highly unlikely.  Then, remembering who is number one, and who is number two, and who is number three, etc, can easily trip up the player.  So you're now forced to select/hurt these figures over and over again, because that's the only way to get through the puzzle.

With all of that in mind, you then have the lyrics:

There will be a day when you hurt someone

You will never know

There will be a day when you kill somebody

Though,

Everybody does

The combination of those lyrics, along with the mini-game of needing to select/hurt people to continue on with the rest of the game, created a very strange feeling for me.  I knew what I needed to do, but was what I was doing killing the other nine figures on the screen?  Maybe these figures are just facets of myself that I'm killing off.  That's what I love about PULMO (more on Friday), that because this game is art, there can be multiple interpretations. Unless the developers explicitly say what one of the puzzles is about or if the music in combination with that puzzle alters the meaning, then it can be how you interpret it.

~JWfW/JDub/The Faceplantman/Jaconian
If This Day Be Our Last

P.S.  I also wanted to mention that on the official soundtrack, the song actually ends at 1:24, but partly because of the likelihood that the player will figure out the puzzle in that time, you're more likely to hear the song loop, so that's what I did here.