Little Orpheus, a stunning journey through the centre of the Earth, is this week’s Apple Arcade release

Little Orpheus is an incredibly charming 2D adventure game that also happens to be today’s Apple Arcade release. It’s a radical departure for developer The Chinese Room, whose previous titles include Dear Esther, Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs, and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.
It’s the 1960s and the space race is well and truly underway, though Soviet cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich is more concerned with the secrets of our own planet than what lies beyond. And so he heads out on an ambitious adventure to the centre of the Earth in an effort to determine whether or not it’s viable for colonisation.

He soon realises that he’s not alone down there, with all manner of nasty dinosaurs now out to gobble him whole. We jump back and forth from present-day Siberia to Ivan’s three-year adventure, as he desperately attempts to convince a high-ranking Soviet general of his otherworldly experience.
The Chinese Room is said to have taken inspiration from a range of sources, from Hollywood classics such as The Land That Time Forgot to mid-century sci-fi writers. It all comes together to create a distinct and consistently intriguing adventure that briskly hops between puzzles, platforming, and well-written cutscenes.

With Little Orpheus being an Apple Arcade game, you’ll of course need an active subscription if you want to give it a go. You’ll find it available for download now from over on the App Store, and I’d strongly recommend trying it out if you’re in the market for something light, stylistically interesting, and with a great sense of time and place.
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