This could’ve been just another solid attempt at a gruesome puzzle platformer in the vein of LIMBO, but with a more defined and very intriguing story. But that’s not how Swery makes games, now is it? No, even when his games are full of references and clear borrowing of ideas and concepts from other games, they have so much personality to them, they feel unique. And even when his games have bizarre and somewhat comedic stories, they seem to have some sort of concept or message to tell, and it’s done in a really unforgettable way. As it happened with The Missing, the first released project from Swery’s (Hidetaka Suehiro) new studio.
Purely in mechanical terms, The Missing is a pretty solid attempt at puzzle platforming. The main “gimmick” of the game is the fact that the main character doesn’t instantly die on hits, but rather gets dismembered or mutilated, which isn’t just something that can happen, but is something that must happen to solve problems. If there is a small crevice that needs to be entered, well, why don’t you cut yourself until you’re just a head and roll in. Vines blocking your way and no torch around – just set yourself on fire. It’s not a unique idea, per se, since you can think of both great Medievil and terrible Neverdead that do something similar, but it’s done really well.
Not all puzzles and screens are well made, mind you, as the game does get frustrating at several sections with bad checkpointing (or in some cases randomly not working checkpointing), tedious puzzle design and very rigid character animation, in contrast to something Playdead would make. And some of the sequences are also not particularly clear on what exactly you must or can do and could’ve worked with more subtle hints. And the whole gruesome dismemberment thing never gets unpleasant to watch or hear, but… I think that might’ve been the intent.
The game opens with a strong message ^. And unlike so many games in recent years that try to have a message, but pushing it into a game or a story without care about how the end result will be, the whole idea of The Missing (and this isn’t a spoiler) is about the accepting the pains of life and accepting who you are. Without sugarcoating it too much, except for donuts, of course.
And as a result, despite the main focus this time around being technically on puzzle platforming, you’ll most likely care about the stories you see via simple, yet really well made phone messenger interactions. You’ll never get used to the crunch of J.J.’s bones breaking because it’s not meant to become normal or less horrifying. For the game that’s built around dismembering it’s main character, I have rarely cared about the main character’s well being in a videogame as much as I did here. And I never excepted to care about little stories of characters I never even properly meet mostly due to how well fitting their sticker packs in the messenger are.
As with the previous projects, there are countless references to things Swery likes. There are ideas straight from sadly never to be finished D4. There’re Twin Peaks reverse speech and lounge music. And there are somewhat awkward references to Deadly Premonition which feel out of place, yet seem to be Swery’s own projection into the game, his own acceptance of himself as a game designer and how his games are perceived by public. And while the game, also as usual, doesn’t look particularly pretty, it has so much style it looks better than a lot of other titles that are more technologically adept and have bigger budgets. The music if, of course, also wonderful.
There are things I didn’t like. As I’ve mentioned, I do hope some sections get rebalanced further or get more checkpoints. I’m also somewhat confused about why additional type of secret was made a new game plus only exclusive, despite not revealing anything that could spoil your first playthrough. And it is a bit of a shame that some of the things, like cutscene skips, are only available in Cheats menu in the new game plus, though the Cheats menu itself is a fantastic addition and I wish more modern games had that to make replaying games feel same, yet different. Oh and, when you enable some cheats they require a button press to work while in game, and it’s not ever stated which buttons do what.
So while I had several sections of just being angry at poor design decisions, ultimately, I was very impressed with the game and it’s really quite unique. Even if you’re not that into puzzle platformers, I would highly recommend giving it a try. It’s… It’s really something. Something very good.