Two Falls is a tale of survival and choices set in 17th-century Canada.
Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) is a story-driven adventure game developed and published by Unreliable Narrators. The studio is based in Montréal, Québec, where the story of the game takes place. Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) is the studio’s first game.
While there isn’t a lot of action to the game or any combat, the game feels a little reminiscent of Life is Strange with how well the story is written as well as with how the story flows from one chapter to the next,
Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) is a first-person adventure story-based game told from the perspective of two very different characters, Jeanne, a young woman from France who was sent to Nouvelle-France, or Canada, to marry, and Maikan an Innu who is native to the lands.
Two Falls is set in the rugged wilderness around Quebec during the French colonization, about a four-week walk away, and is breathtakingly beautiful. The graphics and art style are almost painterly, adding a quirky touch to the adventurous storyline beneath a colorful and well-organized art style.
Jeanne is a devout Christian who made the dangerous journey from France to the “New World” to start a new life. She is the sole survivor when the ship she travels on, the Intrépide, sinks on Saint Catherine’s Bay.
You wake up cold and alone. After walking up and down the beach, you find a cute dog, specifically an English Shepherd named Capitaine. As the sun sets, Jeanne is left alone in the wilderness with few survival skills and must figure out what to do.
That’s when your first choice of how to react around other characters appears: out of the shadows of the forest, a hulking figure appears. That determines your first choice. There is no combat in Two Falls. You must decide whether to run screaming from the figure or sneak into the shadows and hope to escape.
Every decision has consequences. If you sneak away, you’ll receive a notification that Jeanne has become more manipulative. These decisions are called growth. Each encounter shapes Jeanne’s view of the world and her interactions with other characters that she meets. The first person she encounters is the Fur Trapper Pierre.
Christianity plays a very large role in the story of Two Falls. However, when Jeanne is faced with these decisions, her opinions become more progressive or dogmatic, depending on your choices. However, not everything is formulated so that decisions can be easily made, day or night.
Maikan is a young Innu hunter who discovers the desecrated body of a wolf, its body peeled and rotting. He makes it his mission to find those responsible for this atrocity. He follows the trail of the winter spirit, leaving destruction in its wake.
The bitter cold that permeates the entire game, even though it shouldn’t be there, almost seems like a metaphor for change. No matter what you do, no matter how much you prepare, you are never truly ready for the change that is ahead.
The first people he meets are Frenchmen who had come to inspect the wreck of the Intrépide. Although the first meeting differs because of your choices, Maikan will meet Tehonwastasta, a Wendat who works as an interpreter for the French colonizers.
Tehon asks if Maikan will come with them and hopefully catch up with the Fur Trapper, who had butchered the White wolf. Although Maikan declines, Tehon warns Maikan of what the Frenchmen have been doing before Maikan sets off alone. Maikan finally catches up with Pierre, who has lost Jeanne and is traveling alone at this point.
The two begin the almost meaningless task of finding Jeanne in the wilderness. As they travel together, they begin to understand how each person got to this point. Pierre is just trying to build a life for himself and survive at all costs. Maikan can begin to build some trust in Pierre, but he still doesn’t understand his motivations as they are completely different from the way of life he is used to.
With the game being mostly story-driven, there aren’t many mechanics to monitor. The biggest one is that the game is split into chapters, with each chapter being either Jeanne’s or Maikan’s point of view. This could have been disorienting if it hadn’t been done extremely well, allowing the different chapters to flow into each other.
Another Mechanic is the Codex. While not many people will want to stop and read through the entries in the Codex, it helps explain the lore behind the characters, locations, and even the practices used in the game. It has a mix of story or game-related information as well as actual historical information about real places, people, and traditions that were used in the game.
The Sound Design of Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) is incredibly well-designed and thought out. It mixes the sound of Indigenous instruments with a unique and stylized visual style. The game has an incredibly well-written story but is carried by the atmosphere that surrounds it.
Composer Eadsé, who hails from an Indigenous community in Canada, brilliantly integrates the sound environment and soundtrack, giving the game the soundscape it needs to ride the emotional rollercoaster that is the story of Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina).
The voice acting in Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) is done well. While some characters did feel a little stilted when delivering their lines, the voice actors were still able to convey the emotion needed to bring the characters to life.
The graphics in Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) are stunning and feature beautifully done environments, which makes the game feel like you’re exploring an almost picturesque setting in an otherwise dark story. Bright and muted earthy colors blend well to create the beautiful scenery that Maikan and Jeanne walk through while also brilliantly using shadows and lighting for the darker scenes in the game.
Overall, Two Falls (Nishu Takuatshina) is a great cinematic single-player story-driven adventure game that will keep you playing while you try to figure out which choices lead you to a good ending. The game showcases a captivating narrative that intertwines the experiences of Jeanne and Maikan, highlighting their struggles amid the harsh realities of colonialism.
