Birth Review

Living in crowded cities makes me feel lonely.
I will build a body,
a creature,
a collection of bones,
a friend, a partner,
a wet, warm heart. - Birth

Introduction

Birth is a simplistic, point-and-click puzzle game, created by solo-dev Madison Karrh and released in early 2023. You'll be traveling around the streets in your city, collecting the pieces to create a partner by solving various puzzles in different buildings.

I'll attempt to break down the aspects of the game into individual categories and assign a score out of 100 based on certain entirely subjective criteria. The criteria I'll base my score on can be found here.

Spoiler warning

While I try my best not to spoil puzzle solutions or other major parts of the story/gameplay loop, it is hard to write an in-depth review without doing so to some extent. If you have not played the game and do not wish to have aspects of the game revealed to you ahead of time, do not read this review.

Gameplay

The gameplay for Birth is relatively simplistic, as far as most puzzle games go. Every single puzzle in the game requires only the use of your mouse. No keyboard/alternate control inputs are required. As such, the complexity of the puzzles never really extends past "Click these things in this order," or "Drag this thing out of the way to find the reward for the puzzle."

Given the overall design philosophy the game exhibits, it would be disingenuous to bash Birth for not having the puzzle complexity and depth of a game like The Witness. However, I do wish it had gotten a bit more creative with the variety of puzzles. There were many instances where it felt as if I was just repeating a puzzle I'd already completed earlier in the game (or in some cases, actually completing the same exact type of puzzle from earlier in the game).

Gameplay Score: 14/20

Design

The art direction in Birth is something that I can only sing high praises for. Every aspect of the game is done in a hand-drawn 2d style that seamlessly blends the simplistic design of the people (skeletons? I'm not entirely certain) of the world with the complex designs of many of the environmental objects that surround them.

As far as the level design goes, it very closely follows the simplicity of the gameplay in the sense that all you really have to do to explore is click and drag around the map while out on the city street, or click various objects that appear to be of interest inside the buildings. This doesn't really detract from the game at all, though it doesn't really add much to the experience either. I'm not sure what would be a viable alternative for a system like this, but the existing one just feels a bit lackluster.

Design Score: 17/20

Music

The music in Birth does an excellent job at fitting the theming for the game, providing a very calming and relaxed atmosphere with tracks that seem to transition seamlessly into each other. Completing things in-game also adjusts the intensity of the music, which I found to be a nice touch. For as short a game as this is, the score does a wonderful job at heightening the experience.

Music Score: 9/10

Lore

Outside of the idea that you are tasked with at the start, there isn't a super prevalent overarching story being told. If anything, Birth leaves the majority of the "story" up to the player's interpretation, which, given the theming of the game, is a very nice touch and allows the player more freedom to form their own narrative to suit their expectations. Though I do wish that there were a bit more of an explicit story progression, Birth does phenomenally well with what we are given.

Lore Score: 9/10

Controls

_{NOTE: I played this game with keyboard & mouse controls, and the following is based on that.}

The game uses point-and-click controls that feel responsive enough not to interrupt the gameplay in any form or fashion. No other controls exist, so there's not really any reason for Birth to lose points in this category.

Control Score: 10/10

Difficulty

Birth presents itself as a game that is more casual in nature, and as such, does not provide much in the way of seriously difficult puzzles. On its own, this doesn't seem like it would be much of an issue; however, even from a casual perspective, a lot of the puzzles in Birth are easy to the point where you couldn't even necessarily call them puzzles. While I understand the exclusion of particularly difficult challenges for a casual point-and-click puzzle game, I do wish that there were a bit more of a challenge to complete for the more apt players, even if it were an optional side goal.

Difficulty Score: 7/10

Overall Quality

During my playthrough, I found Birth to be free of any sort of "game-breaking" issues that greatly disrupted my gameplay experience. My chief complaint is that sometimes it can be a bit annoying to find the spots you need to click on in rooms to start doing the different puzzles, but this was mostly a non-issue. Otherwise, everything else felt incredibly smooth as far as overall quality is concerned.

Despite the game's smaller run time, there is plenty of extra stuff to find throughout your playthrough, besides the main objective, to provide some exploration initiative for the player, such as accessing the art studio. Ultimately, Birth does a great job at packing in quality additions into the space it has to work with.

OQ Score: 19/20

Final Thoughts

Birth is an enjoyable experience for the 1-3 hours it will take the average player to complete. While it doesn't offer a ton for the more advanced puzzle game player, it provides more than enough challenge to keep you engaged and invested throughout the playthrough to the point where it absolutely justifies the $10.99 USD price tag. It is well worth a playthrough if you have the time to spare.

Overall Score: 85/100

_{All images used in this article were sourced either from the Steam Store, press kits, or personal screenshots taken from the game.}

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