When The Farm 51, a Polish studio originally founded by some of the ex-People Can Fly people, announced Get Even, I expected it to be more or less a straight action game. But the game turned out to be something very different from their previous work and incredibly ambitious. Sometimes to a fault.
So, what is this game then? Well, it’s a first person stealth action adventure, I suppose. There’s a heavy emphasis on storytelling, open shootouts are allowed, but discouraged (both gameplay-wise and story-wise), there’re puzzles involved and nice psychological horror aspects too. Comparisons with Condemned: Criminal Origins are almost unavoidable due to how most of the adventure bits and puzzles work, though there is absolutely no melee in this game and no “weapons as tools” idea as well.
Often times it clicks just right. You carefully stealth through locations, search for evidence, solve puzzles, get into “what is real”-type psychological horror situations and slowly unravel a well-acted story. You’d get just enough excitement through more involved bits to not get too slowed down for the more story-driven segments, so when the next stealth action section starts you’re rested enough. Levels are varied and game knows how to keep things fresh. It might introduce new mechanics and ideas even when you think you’ve figured it out. Also, there is a curious attempt at non-linearity with lots of tiny but sometimes meaningful choices player can make, having some surprising consequences down the line.
But almost as often as it clicks, it falls apart. The pacing in the game often feels off, with some segments being far longer than they need to be and game continuing to layer its narrative way past the point of necessity. It all works out in the end, but looking back, I’m constantly reminded of a lot of moments where I wanted the game to just move on and get to the point. It doesn’t help that some of the key features, especially concerning the non-linearity (the game has several endings, FYI), don’t seem to work, with the game misremembering things you’ve done. Stealth mechanics, despite being as important as they are, also feel surprisingly weak. All while a lot of action ideas often fail, either because of how finicky they are, or because of how rude the game is about player health, or, most importantly, because of how actively discouraged it is.
In addition to that, there are many little things that also feel both awesome and annoying. Music and sound design, for example, are at times top notch, going for a very creepy industrial ambient tone. Only to then burst into string orchestra tunes, which, while nicely written, often feel at odds with the game feel and tone. And a song that sometimes plays is just plain terrible. Some of the sections in the game are horrendously thought out and may just instantly kill you with basically no warning, only to have you watch an “interactive cutscene” again once you respawn. There are occasional weird collision bugs and I had to replay one annoying section an additional time just because I got stuck in a door. And there’s just a general lack of nice quality of life features and a sense that the game always overwhelms you with options, most of which could be trimmed down without sacrificing anything that works well.
I really enjoyed experiencing Get Even despite its many little flaws. Yet, I can also imagine that people who aren’t particularly fond of more story-driven action adventure experiences will get annoyed at those flaws far more than I did. If you miss Condemned and wanted something at least remotely similar in tone and investigatory feel, Get Even will do nicely. And definitely give it a go if you don’t get bored easily at very extended linear story-heavy sections and want a nice horror-ish stealthy action adventure. I can only hope that The Farm 51 will get even better from here.