its good for the price but please, this game is so ♥♥♥♥ing hard!!!! it is like set on impossible difficulty.

This is an excellent game! Long time i haven't seen such a good and intelligent game!

Schein: what a ride this has been. Right away it strikes you with its gloomy protagonist and – excuse the clichéd comparison – Limbo-like, drab, backdrop. With it comes the mirror image reflected in the murky swamp, that for the duration of this game, we are an inhabitant of. The game switches between different colors that all signify their own version of the swamp, we have the rugged, gray and old normative state, where our character has a bleak expression, signifying the hopeless situation we are in, losing our son and all. Then we are quickly introduced to the green light, which turned our character into a young man, perhaps a boy, golden hair and smiling, perhaps the former self of the main character. Then we have what according to the achievements is: despair and insanity, with the colors red and blue, respectively. I would imagine it should have been the other way around considering the expression of the “blue” characters face seem like that of one who is in despair, and the “red” with fiery brimstone and an angry expression seems more like that of an insane person. But I digress. This is the basis of Schein's gameplay, and if I may say so myself, it's great.

This game go from one minute being a slow-paced put-your-thinking-cap-on kind of game to a fast-paced rush through so-called “boats” requiring intense maneuvers that feel absolutely amazing to pull off, and as a bonus, don't make you frustrated when you fail, because it's so much fun to actually learn these patterns and perform elaborate patterns of jumps in accordance with color-switching. There is one level in particular that stands out in this fast-paced regard, with a somewhat fitting name, called “Speed of Life”. The way the level gradually integrated every aspect of your skill set to crescendo you into to some rather impressing stunts, really felt like amazing game-design, and was a lot of fun, to be honest. There were levels or puzzles that could have used some type of hint that you were doing the right thing, especially if you needed to bring a lantern or not. It was ambiguous and subsequently forced some backtracking, albeit minor and not really damaging to the overall experience. Boss fights appear in this game, which is interesting for a puzzle/platformer, and for the most part it paid off and worked within the games structure, as they were the means of which to gain more power. The last fight did become rather confusing as to when you were actually doing damage to this unnamed (to not spoil) thing, but ultimately felt as difficult as a “last boss” should be.

Visual design is not particularly special in any way, but still enjoyable in a reminiscent sense, like the gloomy gray looking like Limbo; the hellish world and green forest-lushness reminding me a lot of Dust: An Elysian Trail, these games use similar textures and models for a lot of the levels, and kind of copy-paste it, but in the process make what's actually there look presentable. The changes, as touched on previously, that our character goes through in every color was a neat feature. In a way it connected to the story of the frustration of not finding his son along with this hellish rage-inducing red, or the coldness of realizing that he may not find his son with the blue, cold – to me distraught and acquiescent – expression. Design-wise things were thought out and seemed to have a purpose, and even though they weren't too awe-inspiring or interesting for any longer period of time, things felt worth looking at.

Schein's story probably has something to offer, but it's delivered in a not so ideal way. The voice-actors sound either uninspired or far too whimsical, and the discrepancy between the two leads can at points be very distracting, at least for that moment, until the game hits you with another brain-hemorrhaging puzzle. In a way it seems mostly metaphorical, perhaps just thrown in to give the game some purpose, and sort of plays on how easily forgotten the story is in the context of the swamp and its hardships it throws at us. “Forgetting” and “moving forward” are keywords, along with perhaps “purpose” if you can be so bold to exchange the word “son” in every dialog with “purpose”, there are some interesting insights to gain from this story, but entirely speculative, but that's where all the fun is to be had, no?

A cacophony of orchestral music littered with piano strings crescendoing into something larger was part of the in parts great musical aspect of Schein. The music stemmed from a scatterbrained person throwing epic orchestras in between slow piano pieces and acoustic guitars, silently plucking away. Was there a general tone, trying to match visuals with audio? Not to my knowledge, but the individual pieces were fine, the quality was high and when the loop was right it actually gelled well with what was happening on the screen. Scatterbrained, but well executed, well enough, I should say.

It's a clear recommendation to me, but mostly for the gameplay, if puzzle-games are your thing, this will be your thing as well. Schein is unique in how these color-systems interact with each other and can often be very satisfying, once you clear a level or an especially difficult puzzle. Although the aesthetics were not ideally pleasing to me, they were not without novelty and worthy of at least some appreciation. It's a good game, you'll enjoy it.

Is this game any good? Yes, it is bloody awesome and bloody hard. I never liked games like this where you die a lot but this is somehow different. Switching between other worlds (dimensions, colors, whatever you want to call that) really get you into. You have to master your jumping skill and also use brain (a lot) and these two things combined create great game which is worth the price.

It's strange how things go sometimes. If you visit the store page for Schein on Steam you'll see logo after logo of award nominations and wins Schein has picked up over the course of its development. And it deserves them too, it's a great game, yet for some reason no one seems to be talking about it. It should by rights be an 'indie darling', but so far it's a lost gem

Maybe part of the problem is that it's easily dismissed as yet another indie puzzle-platformer, a Braid-like. With simple graphics, a so-so character model, and some less than great voice work. Spend some time with Schein though and you realise it's more than that, packed with smart, challenging puzzles, and some cool aesthetics.

The premise is fairly simple, the game opens with you in a swamp looking for your son, soon you bump in to a fairy-like creature, an orb of Light that knows more about the swamp than you, a little more than she's letting on, and can alter the world around her and you. The gameplay quirk of Schein is its use of Light to alter reality. An uncrossable gap in normal light might reveal a ledge to jump on in green light, an impassable barrier in green light might need you to flick to red light to make it disappear. It's a mechanic that starts simple but quickly becomes hugely challenging.

One of the reasons for that is because you don't always get the time to think and plan out how to solve the puzzle. If you're trying to negotiate your way across a huge gap then working out which light you need to switch to has to be done on the fly, you can't always lay down the groundwork. Similarly the platforming can require a large amount of dexterity and skill. To reuse an example from earlier, if you're using the green light to reveal platforms to cross a gap, but there's a barrier in the way that can only be removed using the red light then the process is; have the green light on, jump, switch to the red light, switch the the green light, land the jump. There's a real mind-bending, rapid-fire aspect to the platforming

The shifts of light also improve the game graphically. The simple, bland design of the swamp and main character become far more interesting when the light mechanics are introduced. The green light brings colour to the swamp, your character all smiles and joy, it's sinister. It's a great idea, maybe one that isn't quite explored enough, but it does work to short-hand that everything is not quite what it seems in the swamp

Schein does have problems; the main character is played too flat, he’s supposed to be depressed but whether it's a production issue or a performance issue, something about it just doesn't land. Similarly, and fairly trivially in the great scheme of things, the spirit's English accent is offputting, probably only an issue for English players, but it noticeably isn't an English accent, even if it's recognisably supposed to be one. I was also a little disappointed by the story, a nice premise, a decent off-kilter world, that resolved in to not a lot really, I liked the almost fairytale aspect to it, but it still felt like it's core was missing.

A larger issue comes from the platforming, it's mostly fine but there's moments when encountering spikes where their damage area is larger than the pixels they're made up of. More infuriating, particularly later on, is a series of reworked platform-puzzles involving ledges and lanterns. The aim is to get from one side of the gap to the other, carrying over one coloured lantern at a time, stopping and leaving the lantern in a safe spot to head back and grab a different colour lantern, then leapfrogging the safe lantern before going back for that. It's not entirely different from the riddle about carrying some seed, a chicken, and a fox over a river. The problem is that if you're carrying a green lantern and land on a red platform with a red lantern on it, while in theory that should be fine, too often the green will overlap the red and you'll fall to your death. I'm fine with the game being difficult, but these moments where you feel cheated are blemishes on the game.

The difficulty is worth noting too, I found it pitched just about right, impressively so in fact. At the points where I was stuck I'd come back the next day and solve it. However, I was playing for review, I HAD to make progress, and when I did I found Schein hugely rewarding, but it's not inconceivable that had I just picked the game up on Steam I might have put the game down for the night and never picked it up again.

Don't let that put you off too much though, Schein is a fantastic game, it has a few flaws no doubt, I can't say that any of the boss battles were a high point, but it really is a gem of a game. Difficult but rewarding, it even manages to switch around those first impressions from looking like a cheap patchwork game, to being an impressive, extraordinarily well pieced together game

Schein takes the platform genre and adds a neat unique twist.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEYEv3TqB9g
Most of the world is hidden from you as you explore this beautiful and gorgeously rendered world searching for your missing son. Along your way to meet a magical wisp that helps you peer into this unseen world. This is not an easy platform game and will challenge every player with every step. Are you wise enough to step up to the challenge to unveil new dimensions, defeat deadly beasts, solve tricky puzzles and uncover hidden paths through the murky swamp? - Superb Platfromer!

Charming and entertaining.

More checkpoints or custom saves would be nicer.

UPDATE: Sorry, people, but I have to change my review. After spending several hours with it, I've decided the level design is too cumbersome and technical to merit a thumbs-up.

I want to recommend this game; the graphics are amazing and the triplicate-art shows a level of devotion and attention to detail that most games don't have. Unfortunately, the puzzles eventually get very minute and annoying -- so much so that the game is no longer fun. I simply quit caring and stopped playing. Maybe other people enjoy this sort of pixel-different placement challenge, but I don't want that sort of stress and frustration in my games.

I struggled through many levels that I didn't enjoy, because I assumed the fun factor would return, but it never did. It's just not worth my time anymore.

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Original Review: A remarkable little platformer.

Combine the focused visual concentration of Limbo -- the refined art style, the elegant control mechanisms unencumbered by needless complications -- with the unforgiving, punishing precision of Super Meat Boy -- the tiny ledges, the insane death spikes waiting below -- and you've got a superb title.

You could wait until it gets cheaper, but I can tell this will be worth every penny of the $9.00 I paid.

played 15 minutes.

Love it.

Cool platformer will definatly play more when I get home from work today.

The voice actor for the main character sounds well kind of fake imo but the gameplay is cool. I died like 10 times already hehe

So you have a light and the light changes the world and adds new traps, platforms, and background. So lots of jumping changing at the same time. It like limbo but with color.

An otherwise fun game, marred by the fact that you can't backtrack to pick up a collectible at the last checkpoint. Seriously detracts the game from a 9/10 to a 4/10.