35MM | Xbox Review
I have always loved first-person story-driven games. There has always been something about sitting down and following a narrative to its conclusion. When given the opportunity to play 35MM, I was excited. I have played multiple games from Sergey Sergeich and enjoyed his previous entries like The Light and 7th Sector. So let’s take a walk through the woods and see if this game may, or may not, grab your attention.
The Drive to Survive
35MM is the story of two people trying to make their way along through a post-apocalyptic Russia, following an epidemic that has ravaged the world. You have to survive; to do so you need to find food, water, and other supplies along your journey. 35MM gives a very accurate depiction of what it would take to survive in a world that does not have much left to give. From limited resources and slowly trudging forward, you gain a certain level of respect for the human condition to keep moving ahead no matter what.
But is it Enough
When in the world of 35MM the game has a very haunting atmosphere. The sound design keeps you uneasy and the overall depressing world creates a unique setting. I did very much enjoy some segments of 35MM. There is a very cool sequence in which your character is running for his life and it definitely got my heart racing at the time. I loved the setting and the atmosphere so much that it distracted me enough to keep going, however reality eventually kicked me in the face.
The Scary Bits
Now for the ugly part of this endeavor. The story is unfortunately not as captivating as I had hoped. At times, it just seems to drag and never really grabbed me fully. Also the controls don’t function very well on a console. The cursor feels very set up for mouse and keyboard. I struggled for a few minutes on multiple occasions to pick up objects due the size of the cursor. I also had difficulty seeing some items due to the overall visuals, which for the time of the game’s release were fairly dated.
The biggest difficulty for me was just trying to figure out what to do next. Normally there are a few hints for you to figure these kinds of things out in games. Yet, in the case of 35MM, I struggled enough that I had to look up what to do next on multiple occasions. At one point I had to look up how to find a key item to move the story forward which I had spent the better part of an hour trying to find. When I was finally clued in to what I was looking for, I had walked by it so many times because it blended into the background. Then I had to spend a few minutes trying to pick it up because it was back to the cursor detection issue again.
Walking Away
For some 35MM will be an interesting game to plod along and discover what it has in store. However, for me it was a slow and unfortunate experience. Like the main character, I struggled to keep moving on and I didn’t really enjoy my time in the world that developer Sergey Sergeich had crafted this time around. I normally absolutely adore post-apocalyptic games and I enjoyed 7th Sector, one of his previous games. So if you do take a crack at 35MM, I wish you luck because you’re going to need it.
To hear me talk more about 35MM, be sure to listen to the February 24, 2022 episode of The Gaming Outsider podcast around the 1:39:08 time stamp.
This review is based on an Xbox copy of 35MM provided by Evolve PR for coverage purposes. It is also available on PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
35MM
$9.99
Pros
- Creepy Vibe
Cons
- Hard to Figure Out What to Do
- Cursor Doesn’t Translate Well to Console
- Lackluster Story
