SCHiM review - Stunning visuals can't hide this bland puzzler

Frustratingly, the best part of SCHiM comes in the opening 15 minutes. In order to explain this, I need to tell you a bit about the concept of the game. In the world of SCHiM humans have these little creatures, the Schim, living within their shadows. It’s not just the shadows of humans, but also animals and inanimate objects, too.

They thrive in the shaded world, in fact, stepping out into sunlight will hurt them. If you’ve seen any screenshots or trailers of the game, you’ll know that you control a Schim who must jump from shadow to shadow, making their way through levels.

Going back to those opening minutes, we see the Schim we play emerge from the shadow of a young child. This is our human. The opening is a montage of the child growing into a teenager, then a young adult at college, before growing into an adult. We control our Schim, hopping from shadow to shadow as we see them go off to school, run to meet their friends, and get rejected by a girl. It’s a relatively wholesome set of events that grounds this idea of creatures living within our shadows being akin to the toys that grow alongside Andy in Toy Story.

SCHiM - Extra Nice

It’s a very Pixar-esque set of scenes and it gave me a sense of delight watching this frog-like creature hopping around to stay close to their human.

Then the montage ends with our human becoming an adult. They go to work in a dead-end job, get fired, walk outside after being dismissed, and find their bike stolen. This triggers them wanting to move away from town for a fresh start and, much like Toy Story, we get left behind. What then transpires is a long set of levels with some light puzzling as we hop from shadow to shadow trying to keep up with our Andy and their moving van. And the events never reach that delightful height of those opening minutes.

The puzzles are fine but pretty simplistic. It’s as if the game doesn’t know what it wants to be. Is it a puzzler? Or is it just a joyful experience? Because there is no doubt, hopping around as a frog is lovely. Perhaps because everything is set within two-tone worlds made up of a couple of simple colours. Big bold black lines show off the shadows in which we’ll dwell and it has a sense of style that bowled me over constantly.

Beyond the staggeringly eye-popping visuals, there’s little substance here. There are still hidden moments of glee. Pressing an interact button will cause you to activate machines, extending their shadows to make larger leaps, or sometimes they just jiggle and let out a satisfying sound effect. Like hopping into the shadow of a duck, you can make them quack for some fun; you can activate traffic lights to move cars, giving you more options.

It’s a nice idea, but the ‘puzzles’ are never taxing. Any enjoyment comes from interacting with the environment around you. Signboards that can be bent backward to launch our Schim friend into the distance, or hopping on the shadows of power lines have a trampoline effect. They’re minuscule moments where I crack a small smile before carrying on with sometimes bland sections of simple hopping or getting frustrated because the frog-like Schim doesn’t make it into the razer-thin shadow I’m aiming for and I’m pushed back to a checkpoint. Thankfully, it’s not punishing. Usually, you end up a few hops away from where you ‘died’ in the sunlight.

SCHiM - Extra Nice

With little emotion attached to what’s happening on screen after the opening, and lackluster puzzles, I found myself wishing this was more like Untitled Goose Game or Goat Simulator. A game where you caused some hijinks or a bit of chaos. Something that made me feel like it was having an impact on the world, or give me a reason for all this hopping about.

Once the game ended I felt underwhelmed. For something that looks this gorgeous and has such a confident sense of style, that feeling doesn’t translate to the actual gameplay. All I could think about were the missed chances of having this cute shadow frog interact more with the world or have an emotional connection through its adventure, rather than just constantly chasing an ever-changing endpoint that never really satisfies.

Pros: Stunning visuals, delightful interactions

Cons: Bland in places, puzzles are simplistic, lacks emotion or drive

For fans of: Light puzzlers, Pixar films

5/10: Average

SCHiM is available now on Nintendo Switch (version tested), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series S|X and PC. Review code was provided by the publisher. Find a complete guide to GAMINGbible's review scores here.