Should you visit the town of Porcupine?
Fall of Porcupine is a unique story adventure. The collision of work and daily life – an exciting reflection of an unhealthy healthcare-system. You don’t even have time to look at the clock because your patients are waiting! Investigate what’s wrong with them through your conversations and treat them in different minigames that challenge you in logic, speed, and skill. And most importantly, withstand the stress when the strict head doctor questions your knowledge yet again.
Fall of Porcupine tells the story of a town by the same name. You play as a junior doctor pigeon called Finley who is overwhelmed by his duties at the hospital and daily life. You end up getting into a routine of treating patients, going home and repeat. You will learn more about the people of the town and its history from patients, hospital staff, friends and other townsfolk.
Finley treats his patients from a series of minigames. These vary from a version of Wordle and a Guitar Hero-style minigame to name a few. They vary in difficulty but it doesn’t really seem to matter if you mess up, the story just progresses and all is fine. It’s more about the story itself of the struggling workers, the hospital that is slowly falling apart at the seams and the town trying to hold itself together. It’s a good story, told well and really highlights how tough it must be for hospital staff at times of crisis.
The visual style is charming and I didn’t come across any visual bugs, but dialogue did get stuck in one instance until I reset the game. Luckily this only happened once, so other than that my time with the game was smooth sailing. The soundtrack is also pretty impressive with some relaxing tunes.
The Verdict
Fall of Porcupine tells a decent story and shines a light on the issues with healthcare and how underappreciated hospital staff are. The minigames are a mixed bag and the story does start off slowly to begin with, but it soon ramps up and suddenly you don’t want to say goodbye to the town of Porcupine. Maybe one day we’ll get a return visit…