Review: SCHiM Gets Annoying

There are times when the idea behind a game is good, but the nature of it can frustrate you due to constantly finding yourself chasing after someone or something. SCHiM has an interesting concept, as it’s a small creature moving in shadows, but the ease of play, only occasional use of unusual mechanics to get from shadow to shadow, and constant near misses with the person can be a bit annoying.

A schim is a frog-like creature that lives in the shadows. People’s shadows. Animals’ shadows. Inanimate objects’ shadows. They’re always there. They can influence their owners as well, causing minor actions. SCHiM starts with a particular one being separated from their human after the person trips. As a result, the rest of the adventure involves chasing after to reunite with them.

Each level of SCHiM after the introduction involves sending the schim leaping from shadow to shadow after a person who is constantly out of reach. You need to keep an eye on shadows of animate and inanimate objects to find your way. In some cases, you’ll have to press a button to trigger an action and potentially create a new path. Environmental elements, like car headlights along a road at night or a thunderstorm with sudden flashes of light, can force you to think about brief windows of opportunities. So to can occasional shadows with additional elements, like a windsock that will send you on a gust to a location farther away or a clothesline that acts like a spring.

Part of what gets annoying about SCHiM is that it feels like it’s designed to be a puzzle and platforming game, but isn’t always good at either. In the case of puzzles, there will be situations where a mechanic will come up once, but then rarely or never used again. (I see you, umbrella on the side of the road!) Which means you can sit there in frustration, as you don’t even know that’s an option to help you proceed. 

As for platforming, there’s rarely any challenge. Sometimes it is only “difficult” because you need to wait for moving objects to finally appear again to allow you to progress. That, or holding the trigger to show where the “goal” is suddenly suggests it is in a different place after you already progressed to a certain point. There were a few situations during which I almost got through the entire level just by happening to luck out and jump into the shadow of the right person or car, and I’m not quite sure it was supposed to be that easy. Not to mention that while some levels do have collectible items you can find by going off the beaten path, it feels like that opportunity doesn’t happen nearly often enough.

However, SCHiM also annoyed me after a while because of its premise. It really hit me once I reached a point when the schim nearly reached their person in a supermarket. It was such a disappointment to see the near misses and know that even if my platforming was perfect, there were still more levels to come and I wouldn’t reunite the two. Since it is also a wordless story and we’re never really connecting with the person, I stopped feeling any sympathy for the schim’s partner due to the constant near-misses. How do you finish a whole pizza, on your own, that quickly? When has a bus ever departed immediately after one particular person got on it? Why didn’t the schim just enter the hotel their person was staying at, when they were definitely stationary and sleeping, and just wait outside their door?

At least SCHiM looks and plays well. The schim’s leaps cover a decent amount of distance. You also get a second, smaller hop if you don’t immediately leap to another shadow, giving you a “second chance” to reach your next point of interest. Rotating does help with seeing prospective paths. Also, the art direction is simplistic, but both clear and detailed.

I like the concept behind SCHiM and the artistic direction, but certain elements of it frustrated me after I got about 30 levels into it. I found myself wishing for more of a challenge or a story that left me less annoyed at the person I was trying to track down. I imagine it’d be more entertaining if played in shorter bursts. But marathoning it might make you feel a bit depressed as you see yourself constantly just miss someone who just won’t sit still.

SCHiM will be available on July 18, 2024 for the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC.