The journey begins
Stela is a puzzle adventure video game developed by the Canadian developer Sky Box Labs. It was released on 17 October 2019 for iOS and Xbox One and on 13 March for Microsoft Windows.
You play as a young woman teleported from a stone stela (possibly explaining the name of the game) into a dangerous and hostile world. No word is ever said or written in the whole game (except in the extras) but you quickly gather that you must traverse this world rightward until you reach an unknown destination. Much of the story is left open to interpretation. In these regards, Stela is quite similar to other games like Limbo and INSIDE (2016).
Shouldn't be confused with the video game Stella Glow.
This game provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Ending: After a long journey, you Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence and, possibly, destroy the whole word. The stinger seems to indicate that it might not be the end of everything, however.
- Ambiguous Situation: Since there is no spoken or written narrative, much of the game is left to interpretation.
- Corridor Cubbyhole Run: Quite a few instances. The woods have you avoid detection from Shadows by hiding behind or inside logs, while the flaming battlefield has a periodic rain of arrows that you need to avoid by hiding behind obstacles.
- Crapsack World: Monsters everywhere, raging war, no humans left...little seems able to be saved from this world. Reading the extra section indicates that this world is coming to an end after enduring many atrocities. The main character is a divine creature meant to witness the end of this world and deliver a mercy kill.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: You won't encounter any other character or creature that isn't after your blood. The only exceptions are hooded figures who seem to be worshiping you as the harbinger of the apocalypse.
- The Faceless: The main character, somewhat. As the camera is always kept a distance from the action, her facial details can't be made out.
- Gainax Ending: The planet seems to have exploded due to the mercy kill you gave it. It might get better after a while according to the stinger, though.
- Humanoid Abomination: The Shadows you see in the forest are black, humanoid things. One of the stelae in the final level hints they used to be human, but were corrupted and transformed by some force.
- Kill the Cutie: You can't help but feel bad when the main character goes ragdoll after a fatal fall or after being attacked by one of the game's monsters.
- Light Is Not Good: The main character is a young woman dressed in white. But she is still the harbinger of the apocalypse. On the other hand, given the horrible state of the world through which she travels, it's pretty clearly a mercy kill.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Possibly the cultists of the kraken-like creature.
- Mind Screw: The last stage with the "stela universe" is one. According to the extra section, it might be the dimension where the history of the planet and its civilization is written.
- Mysterious Waif: The main character to a tee.
- Pressure Plate: A game mechanic you will encounter a couple of times.
- Rain of Arrows: One of the early stages has you crossing a battlefield dodging volleys of flaming arrows.
- Run or Die: Courtesy of some gruesome deathtraps. Most enemies in the game also require this, since you usually have no way to attack them.
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: At one point, you need to release a caged snow lizard to get it to eat a Shadow in your way. Mind you, the lizard will then try to attack you as you cross the area where the Shadow was.
- The Stinger: After the credit roll, there is a short sequence showing a medieval castle and a nearby village while a stela emerges from the ground. Could mean that the world did survive the apocalypse or that we are witnessing another world which is about to suffer the same fate....
- Wormsign: The burrowing snow lizard monsters give this off when they travel under the snow. Touching the front of said snow trail gets you eaten by them, of course.
