"Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" is quite a popular saying, but developer duo Moonatic Studios and Maniac Panda Studios may be leaning too heavily on that defense for Playdead's lawyers.  It's not helped that One Last Breath's transplanted eco-conscious spin (thematically and visually) has about the same charisma as a lobotomy victim.  The bright side is you're only stuck with the poor soul for a couple of hours.  It's quite dull, but not exorbitantly so.  As the last gasp of Mother Nature, you're tacitly impelled to play Gaia through a pastiche of INSIDE's levels in order to bring natural life back to this dying world.  It's a shame then that this bleak tableaux of ecological destruction isn't interested in forwarding a concrete message; then again, whose homework could they copy from?

Perhaps one could argue the positive example stems from our near-silent protagonist.  Bedecked in the natural equivalent of Dune's still suit, garnished with a bioluminescent popped collar to boot, she's essentially framed like the last remaining white blood cell heroically fighting off a virus.  After navigating the initial dangers of a gloomy forest and abandoned farm, it won’t take long to stumble upon a doe to pet.  It's a touching moment diminished by other deer that'll cut through your 2D path which can't be interacted with; hell, they even phase through you, seemingly unconcerned by any nearby threats.  It's a strange mismatch that neither the game's vague narrative nor level design can rectify.


If you're familiar with this style of 2.5D cinematic platformer you'll feel right at home: the basic run/walk movement, jump, crouch, and interact button (typically for flipping switches).  The only time you 'escape' the 2D plane is when grabbing a ladder that's technically in the background until you push up on the control stick.  Nothing truly surprising in that regard, but a few eco-focused gimmicks add some dashes of life.  Gaia's ability to essentially "possess" nearby roots, via special green nodes, is one of Breath's puzzle-platformer cornerstones; whether manipulated to hold open blast doors, become natural platforms, or whatever else, they at least capture the backdrop's visual tone.

But all that's really done is retooling sci-fi gimmicks through a natural lens.  What if you had grapple hook made of a vine?  What if a plant created a temporary bubble shield to safely traverse through pockets of mephitic poison gas?  That in and of itself is fine, but it also highlights how each nuance feels like it's in service to a checklist.  You're less exploring a hermetically-sealed world full of strange wonders and more hopping through repetitive chase sequences, mostly-simplistic puzzles, and so on.  No unique concept takes root (pun intended) because it feels soullessly Xeroxed.

That's especially so regarding the ghouls you'll have to evade.  Sadly, these developers could really only salvage enough change for two enemy types: a rubber-skinned sprinter with three arms for chases and a gargantuan Lovecraftian monster resting upside down to crouch-walk past.  Virtually no game is safe from reusing certain concepts, but it's amazing just how reliant Breath is on basic foot chases over and over and over and over again; moreover, even the design for some of them is busted.  One instance of completing a puzzle's first half and subsequently dying resulted in me respawning without him giving chase again – even though the tense background music still implied it.


These continual issues remind that there's a lost art to this sub-genre's design and production.  Perhaps some might say it's unfair to over-emphasize the latter for an indie game.  To that I say: (a.) its standard price is $18, and (b.) such heightened emphasis is an expectation for this particular sub-genre.  Something about a "LIMBO-like" platformer is lost when death doesn't carry gnarly consequences.  Seeing both a bear trap and post-apocalyptic freak giving Gaia the same violent squishing animation as though she were pulverized like a chicken - replace feathers with leaves - never matches the bleak atmosphere of those contemporaries.  Sure, it's weird to be so attentive to the details of what Playdead puts its boy-protagonists through, but such viciousness informs the world and character.

One area which sporadically does effectively capture that dour mood is the level backgrounds.  The way scale, lighting, and texture are used is absolutely awe-inspiring at times.  Again, the main problem is the moment I start thinking about Breath's laboratory or farm sections I can't help but see ersatz INSIDE – down to the very color grading.  There are several moments, when taking in the sights and sounds, where I was legitimately curious if these teams stole Playdead’s environmental artists and forced them to recreate their work at gunpoint.  This isn't to admonish anyone from paying homage to games that inspired them; after all, games are more driven by iteration than innovation.  But there comes a tipping point where you're left wondering why Moonatic & Maniac Panda were so obsequious to replicate that style – even by including certain sound queues within the soundtrack – over Breath's rare nuanced locales, such as the favelas.

There's no shortage of accusations one could make about bigger and more incidental things, even down to its collectibles and secret ending.  It's not like any of these qualities are trademarked.  But if you're going to take that route at least – at least! – ensure it feels competently-made.  With the rare exemption of a decent multi-layered puzzle, most come back to extremely basic or insanely specific.  Cheap deaths often feel false since eluding some enemies requires such a highly-specific string of actions to create enough space between you and them.  A couple of instances seemed so far-fetched in their reaction demands that I honestly couldn't understand how they made it past Q/A. 


Whenever trying to communicate something thematically grander it typically cuts against itself too.  Seeing several birds drop dead next to a toxic lake with scattered wind turbines everywhere sends a few conflicting messages.  So, is there a misanthropic point being made that any type of cleaner energy, be it nuclear energy, lithium extraction fields, and/or turbines are tainted due to human involvement?  Perhaps I'm too desperate to grasp for substance in a narrative that has no such ambitions.  Sure, the overarching "big business destroying the planet" angle is consistently reinforced through this world, but what's being said past the bad things that happened?  After recycling the same enemy encounters and the same repeating point, there's no reason to care.

It may grow tiring to consistently compare this minimalist platformer phylum to Playdead's work, but it's tough to ignore in the face of clear evidence.  The crux of the problem is this: no copycat should be satisfied in reproducing its inspiration without incorporating a visual, aural, story, and/or mechanical nuance alongside it.  None of these four categories are met here, so what's left is a ditto platformer that's content with showing yet another hellish landscape after humans are nearly wiped out.  And by disregarding any meaningful point over its environmental themes, the title's namesake seems all the more ironic since it never says anything for itself up to the bitter end.

Contractor by trade and writer by hobby, Lee's obnoxious criticisms have found a way to be featured across several gaming sites: N4G, VGChartz, Gaming Nexus, DarkStation, and TechRaptor! He started gaming in the mid-90s and has had the privilege in playing many games across a plethora of platforms. Reader warning: each click given to his articles only helps to inflate his Texas-sized ego. Proceed with caution.