Preview | Among Walls

LifeisXbox’s Among Walls preview | Despite its name, Among Walls has absolutely nothing to do with Among Us. It heavily inspires itself from the old Tomb Raider games. I only played a bit of Tomb Raider Anniversary that has the kind of gameplay from them. There was so much here that was recognizable from them even to me. Among Walls is going to the Steam Early Access program and is developed and published by M3M/M3M Games, which is a one-man studio.

ℹ️ Previewed on PC | Preview code provided by PR/publisher, this preview is the personal opinion from the writer and is based on an unfinished game.

It feels like Tomb Raider

Among Walls is a pretty enjoyable game to play with climbing, swimming, combat, and puzzles that feels a lot like Tomb Raider. Climbing, as far as I’m aware, works exactly how it did in the original Tomb Raider games: jumping to anything on a higher level than you allows you to grasp it, but you’ll have to press the space bar again to climb it. The C key allows you to crouch to get through small openings, but it also allows you to grab onto a ledge you’re standing close to. You will automatically run, but if you hold Shift and press S, you will take a little step back, which can be useful for jumping and climbing. Combat is simple, as you can only aim and shoot with your mouse. What’s cool is that you can jump around while shooting, exactly like Lara did in the earlier Tomb Raider games, and our protagonist Kiara Bell moves in the air just like Lara did. Puzzles consist of pulling levers to open doors and raise water levels, pushing buttons for various purposes, and pushing blocks to climb higher. Swimming is equally simple; simply press C to submerge, then look in the direction you want to travel while pressing W, and you’re done. There are currently two weapons available: the standard two pistols that Lara Croft has in Tomb Raider, which have limitless ammo, and a shotgun that I discovered in both the third and fourth levels, though I’m not sure if it’s available earlier.

Interesting levels

At the time I’m writing this preview there are four levels available and one that is currently work-in-progress. The one that is still being worked on is Kiara’s mansion, which will serve the purpose of a tutorial level but will also have secrets and items to be found in it. The other four levels are all in the Alps, each being the sequel to the previous one, continuing where you left off. They are all pretty interesting, with plenty of secrets and items to be found, enemies (wolves, dinosaurs, and bats) to be fought, and with an interesting layout. The third level is way more open-ended than the others, which is good, but you can get somewhat lost in it. There’s even the classic rolling stone that every explorer game and movie seems to have, which was actually cool to see.

Things that need to be changed

I was only able to move and aim with the Xbox One controller, so it doesn’t seem to have complete compatibility yet. I witnessed an enemy spawn directly next to me at one point, which shouldn’t be possible. Pulling levers without actually grabbing them and your body phasing through some walls are examples of animations that aren’t always as clean as they should be. At some time, you may become stuck in at least one slope, requiring you to return to the previous checkpoint. I had a glitch where I was standing in water as if I wasn’t even in water, and I had to travel back to a prior checkpoint to fix it. Some textures could use some work, such as a plant with a line coming out of its tip; it isn’t visible from every angle, but every “copy” of this plant has the same issue.  The left side of each piece of wood in the image below this paragraph cannot be walked on. I understand the developer aims to add new levels, which I welcome, but I believe they should first address current issues and complete the tutorial level. When I sought support, the M3M dev was happy to assist me and even did a quick patch for the game, so I know Among Walls is in good hands.

Conclusion

Among Walls needs to fix its issues and add new content, but it has potential as it is fun and interesting to play. I know it’s kind of obvious it’s a game made with Unity from the images in this review, but it is a good one. I believe the developer can continue improving it to make it as good as they can make it, considering how quick he was to help me and even patch the game. I’m cheering for you dev from M3M!

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