The Fall is a 2014 action-adventure game made by developer Over The Moon. The game centers around A.R.I.D., the artificial intelligence of highly advanced combat space suit holding pilot Colonel Josephs. Having crash landed on the surface of an unknown planet, A.R.I.D. finds that Col. Josephs has become unresponsive inside the suit and that . Concluding that the pilot’s life is injured and in life-threatening danger, A.R.I.D. takes control of the suit and attempts to navigate towards safety.
While exploring the abandoned facility A.R.I.D. awoke in, the suit is captured by other A.I. controlled machines, the suit A.I. is subjected to an analysis by an android called the Caretaker. Unable to prove A.R.I.D.’s primary functions due to the unresponsive pilot, the Caretaker declares the suit to be defective and plans to overwrite A.R.I.D. and then “de-purpose” the suit. Breaking free and incapacitating the Caretaker, A.R.I.D. escapes and discovers she is in a center dedicated to analyzing and recycling broken robots.
After a long journey throughout the facility, in which A.R.I.D. is forced through repeated tests and ultimately destroys the Caretaker, the suit AI finally reaches a medical suite at the top level of the facility and submits herself to a scan of her human occupant. There is no occupant. A.R.I.D. removes the suit’s helmet, and reveals to the player that there was never a pilot inside to begin with. Forced to face the reality of her dysfunction and now lacking any objectives, A.R.I.D. surrenders to the facility and is slowly dismantled before the player.
The Fall tells an intense story, with many themes regarding the challenge and hardship of mental illness and self-awareness. Although the art is simple and the mechanics culminate in what is ultimately an average gameplay experience, the story surrounding A.R.I.D.’s descent into and through a facility of madness is incredibly captivating.
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