Little Orpheus is a cinematic platformer that had a lot of potential and a great idea, but never delivers on its promises. This is a real shame; most of the artistry that has gone into the game has been put into great care and even the low spec Nintendo Switch manages to deliver some impressive visuals.

The premise revolves around Ivan Ivanovitch, a Russian cosmonaut who is interrogated by his superior officer after a failed mission. A weapon known as “Little Orpheus” has been lost and Ivan does his best to come up with an elaborate and totally unbelievable story to explain what happened.

He doesn’t believe Ivan’s story from the start and drives him crazy; Ivan dug deeper into a more elaborate lie to explain what was happening. This was where the game showed promise, as Ivan’s story could literally be anything and the gameplay could support his absurd lies. Unfortunately, Little Orpheus don’t even try. Where is it all going wrong? Discover it here Little Orpheus review!

Little Orpheus
Developer: The Chinese Room
Publisher: Secret Mode
Platforms: Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch (reviewed), Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, iOS
Release date: September 13, 2022
Players: 1
Price: $12.99

Little Orpheuspremise was one where literally anything could happen to support fun and exciting gameplay. In other examples of the genre such as INSIDE or The Missing: JJ Macfield and the Island of Memories; players are expected to do some light platforming in addition to solving some esoteric puzzles or engage in a stage gimmick or set piece.

These are not twitch based platform games. These types of games usually have methodical movements and drawn-out animations to make the characters feel heavy and give a sense of truthfulness. Gamers often had to take their time going through stages because death was easy and there were traps and obstacles to negotiate.

Little Orpheus hardly has anything to contend with except some tension in your left thumb from holding the left thumb stick to the right. Typically, cinematic platformers have very simple controls: jump, crouch/slide, and a context-sensitive action button. The idea is that the scenario will have different actions and gimmicks to mix up the gameplay. This is not the case with Little Orpheus.

There is so little content and boring level design that Little Orpheus can hardly qualify as a cinematic platformer. Most stages are long and flat corridors and can have one opening to clear or the most brain-dead puzzle imaginable with just flipping a switch. There’s also a laughably simple stealth module that’s so pathetic that its inclusion is questionable as there are no real enemies.

Other times Little Orpheus make Ivan run from collapsing floors or maybe he’s being chased by a large creature. Probably the most daring game is during the underwater series, where the gravity of the game is adjusted and players are given a slightly more challenging set of obstacles. Ivan’s story could have been anything, but instead the game is dull and often boring.

As he travels through these surreal hollow-earth backdrops, Ivan tells his story to his superior who has none of it. After a while I had more contact with the increasingly moody and frustrated general than with the main character. You wish Ivan told a better, more exciting lie that would make the gameplay less flat.

Ivan and the General give solid comedic performances and get decent scripts to work with. Both characters play really well with each other and many of the jokes come true. It’s a shame that the gameplay lacks imagination at all because Little Orpheus is a worthy artistic achievement with its art direction.

Little Orpheus in the end it feels incredibly superficial and recycling some set pieces makes the experience seem a lot cheaper than the stunning images suggest. Ivan may not come up with compelling scenarios, but the man does have an eye for lurid and surreal landscapes. Even on a meek Nintendo Switch, the colorful settings leave an impression.

The heavy use of chromatic aberration and intense pallet make Little Orpheus feel like a feverish sour nightmare while watching some old fashioned series. This was originally an Apple Arcade release and was in an episodic release format. This means that all levels end with a cliffhanger (which doesn’t make sense when Ivan is narrating) and a second narrator who is more like an announcer closes each episode.

While Little Orpheus lack of level design makes up for it with spectacle. There are scenes with huge alien structures in the distance, huge carnivorous dinosaurs and imposing technological marvels. The artist(s) went all out and realized beautiful views and environments.

Character design is appealing too – seemingly inspired by Hergé’s bande dessinée, The Adventures of Tintin. Ivan’s silhouette even has some Tintin-esque features, such as his haircut and frenetic key poses during action; a staple of Hergé’s art. Ivan is still a very different character – a clumsy and wimpy character and it’s what sets him apart.

The art in Little Orpheus impresses, but there are some instances where the performers cut a few turns. There are some larger creatures in the backgrounds that are huge and “baby” versions are very obviously scaled-down adult models. This is especially evident with the baby walruses, some of which now have fully grown tusks.

The boring gameplay could have been carried away by the great art and funny character talk. Where Little Orpheus the hardest part is controlling it. As mentioned before, the inputs are as simple as possible. The problem is that Ivan’s controls feel unbearably slow and laggy.

This isn’t the right kind of slow-motion action like swinging a bigsword in Monster Hunter Rise; there is almost a second delay when moving or jumping. Thankfully, the gameplay is so basic and boring, clearing jumps or sliding under an obstacle doesn’t require much thought, and the few quick-time events here are so absurdly generous it’s questionable why they were included.

On other consoles or PC, the rough controls may not be an issue. On Nintendo Switch, Little Orpheus rarely feels responsive enough to be enjoyable. Until the control issues are resolved, Ivan must be sent to the Gulag.

Little Orpheus‘ has a sufficiently solid foundation. It’s a shame there wasn’t enough creativity put into the puzzles or platforming. The visuals are so good it could have made up for the lack of imagination, but the rough controls and blotchy input keep it from achieving greatness.

Little Orpheus has been reviewed on Nintendo Switch using a copy of Secret Mode. You can find additional information on Niche Gamer’s review/ethics policy here. Little Orpheus is now available for Windows PC (via Steam)PlayStation 4, iOS (via Apple Arcade), PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S.