SCHiM Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Once you get over the terrifying idea that your shadow is not only alive, but also capable of wandering around on its own, SCHiM is a delightful and whimsical indie game that gently plays with your preconceptions.

As with the best games, SCHiM’s central mechanic needs very little explanation.  Schims are a person’s soul or spirit. They are capable of leaving their owners body – is that creators? Do we ‘create’ our spirits? – taking on the form of adorable inky frog-like creatures. These can hop from shadow to shade, but never out in the open on their own for long, with a tether to their owner ensuring that they snap back to their original location.

The opening of the game takes you through a person’s early life, with you and your Schim – who is fundamentally your shadow – initially riding tricycles, jumping on trampolines and generally having a good time, before steadily growing up, taking in highlights like graduation and meeting a girl, before experiencing some of the less enjoyable aspects of life like break-ups and getting fired from your job.

That’s when you have ‘the incident’. While running for a bus your person falls over, somehow severing the connection between him and his Schim, and on discovering that he’s somehow shadow-less, he panics and runs away. This leaves you to make your shadowy way back to your owner, hopping, bouncing and skulking through the shade.

All of this storytelling is done without a single line of dialogue or text, and it’s done with a clear sense of intent and purpose, as well as a playful eye for how to tell a story without words. The simple but elegant art style helps here, and the world has a solidity and a realness to it that feels utterly grounded, while the shadow creatures have an adorable Ghibli-esque charm to them. You’ll nestle in amongst other shadows as you invade their turf, and little touches such as cars’ larger, sleepier shadows eyeing you with annoyance really brings Schim to life.

Despite playing like a platformer, Schim