Review — XING: The Land Beyond

You died

Developer: White Lotus Interactive
Publisher: White Lotus Interactive
Platform: Windows, Oculus, Steam, Playstation 4
Price: $15.00-$40.00 USD (Review copy received)
Genre: First Person, Puzzle
Release Date: September 21st, 2017

XING is the first game developed and produced by indie developer White Lotus Interactive. Beginning as a college assignment, the game has evolved into a full concept and found itself greenlit by Steam and fully Kickstarted as well as given full VR support. The White Lotus team also received many accolades and prizes from Epic Games, Indiecade, Gamezebo, and more. Despite floating under the radar as the release date gets closer, XING is definitely a game that lives up to its goals.

Mechanics and Gameplay

Outside of movement and camera control, XING only features three buttons — one for picking up and dropping objects, another for throwing objects, and a final button for jumping. Using these, the player travels around different locales solving puzzles of the logic, environmental, and physics variety. At times, the game will require the player fill a room with water while, at another, telling the player to simply light a series of torches to activate platforms. Each area adds a new mechanic such as a day/night cycle and a rainy season. Standing on pressure points for several seconds activates them and using the pick up/drop button sometimes doubles as an “interact general” button. Clues are scattered about in the area to advise the player on what to do next and activate automatically as the player approaches them. The game is not very complicated and does what it intends to do.

Everything about the mechanics seems to work just fine outside of one little thing — the platforming. There are several platforming sections throughout each level. It can be difficult to estimate distance between the player and the platform leading to many moments of frustration. At times, the jumping just doesn’t feel responsive enough.

Sound Effects and Music

XING has wonderful music. Even when forced to listen to music for upwards of twenty minutes due to being stuck on a puzzle, the music never gets annoying. It follows the perfect philosophy of video game music — enjoyable outside of the game, but never too distracting within the game itself. White Lotus also is aware of when to turn off the tunes for dramatic effect. No major complaints about the music will be found here.

On the other hand, the sound effects are hit or miss. Most of the sound effects blend into the music and announce important information without distracting the player. However, the main character themselves lack any sense of force or impact. The main character makes no vocal sounds and their interaction with the world also has no notable sounds. On the other hand, there are no noises that get particularly grating after a while.

There is very little voice acting, but all of it is well done. All of the voicing is in the form of poetry. The voice inflection of the actors often feels like an adult telling a story to a child. The poet at the Desert of Naar in particular stands out presenting sounds that would not sound out of place were he to play Gilgamesh in an English dub of Fate/Stay night. Overall, the voice acting is good. Some voices are stellar while others are passable.

Graphics and Art

White Lotus did an impeccable job with the visuals of the game. Even at the lowest possible settings, the game is still beautiful. The game hiccups occasionally with frame rate, but mostly runs smoothly. It also has unlimited frames per second, so high end computers can really see the potential animations. The game contains many particle effects that enhance the feeling of magic and mysticism within the game. The cycles of weather also enhance this feeling showing what the world looks like during a snowstorm, at night, and during a torrential downpour. There’s not much to say other than the graphics and particles looked wonderful. Visuals are the most important aspect of a puzzle game and White Lotus hit the nail on the head with this one.

Story and Setting

XING is a story about death — the inevitability and the individual experiences. The protagonist is an unnamed person who has died of unknown causes. Before passing on, they must learn the stories and find the lost souls of four others while being guided by a large stone guardian. While navigating through the various locations, Iztali Point, Nahele Rain, Hyaku Lake, and Desert of Naar, the player hears the final thoughts and moments of these souls before they passed on. The stories can be quite emotional and touch on topics such as suicide and child abuse. I never found myself bored with these stories and the voice acting made sure I could continue playing the game rather than being forced to stop and read every few moment.

The setting takes much inspiration from real life cultures including Ainu/Japanese, Mayan, Persian, and Hawaiin groups. The architecture and mazes often utilize the inspirations freely. There is some naming confusion with Nahele Rain and Iztali Point, being Hawaiin and Mayan words, but representing locations based on the Mesoamerica and Hawaii respectively. Other than that, the locations are done with respect and make the world feel new and fresh.

Sadly, the trailers do nothing to show off the excellent writing.

Difficulty

Overall, the game is quite easy. Some puzzles are notoriously more difficult, but can all be solved given time and effort. The use of hints scattered about can often make difficulty non-existent. On the sliding scale of casual versus difficult, this game sits somewhere between easy and average. The game can be completed in about 8–12 hours depending on how much one loves environmental puzzles and how much they decide to explore. The game never truly punishes the player with death being nothing more than a reset. At times, committing suicide in game could be utilized as an actual mechanic for short ranged teleports. The game is always giving the player a helping hand.

Bugs

There were some issues while playing the review copy that may be fixed in the final product. There were two instances of game breaking bugs in both Desert of Naar and Nahele Rain that involved simply getting stuck in a room with no way out short of quitting and reloading the game. There were also some issues with achievements on steam not registering even after performing all the necessary actions to complete said achievement.

Verdict

Despite clunky platforming and a couple of game breaking bugs, XING is a wonderful puzzle game. It’s calming and contains wonderful poetry and philosophy about the nature of life, death, and rebirth. If you’re a fan of environmental puzzles and enjoy games such as Portal and Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians, then this game is for you. Also, this game will appeal to those who love beautiful environments such as Flower and Journey. If you’re not a fan of the above games, I’d give this one a pass. It doesn’t offer anything to those not interested in mechanics such as these. Sleep tight.