[Review] Two Falls – Nishu Takuatshina on PlayStation 5

Alright, so I got my hands on this game called Two Falls – Nishu Takuatshina, and man, it’s a trip. Affordance Studio and Unreliable Narrators cooked this up, and – well – it throws you back to when French and Indigenous folks first ran into each other in Canada. How wild is that? Anyway, here’s my take on it.

Picture this: 17th century Canadian wilderness. It’s all forests and wildness and probably way too many mosquitoes. You get to be two people, Maikan and Jeanne. Maikan’s this young Innu guy – a hunter who’s trying to figure out why everything’s going downhill for his people. Jeanne, on the flip side, is a Daughter of the King. Not royalty per se, just, you know, shipped over to make babies with colonists in Nouvelle-France. Yeah, that was a thing.

So Jeanne’s on a ship – the L’Intrépide (what a name, right?) – which decides to have a bit of a freakout. Boom, crash, whatever, and she and her dog, Capitaine, play the part of “last ones standing.” Now she’s trekking to Quebec, probably wishing she’d packed more snacks. Maybe a map. Who knows?

Then there’s Maikan, dealing with stuff no one’s written books on yet. His great-granddad was a medicine man, so you think he’d know his way around problems like a pro, but these white settlers throw everything into chaos. So, off he goes on his epic quest to save the day or at least try.

Now, about how you play the game – it’s all from a first-person perspective. You’re moving around with your controller sticks like someone who’s just discovered thumbs. Sprint buttons, interactive X’s, the whole shebang. I realized halfway through that pressing Triangle shows your objective, which I may or may not have missed a few times. Classic me.

The interactions are kinda crazy. Sometimes you’re given choices, like life’s a multiple-choice test. There’s a Codex too, where you flip through entries about characters, places, or random plant facts. Though, let’s be real, I started doing it because Maikan and Jeanne have different views on stuff – and it’s a sneaky way to get inside their heads without asking them awkward questions.

Oh, and there’s a Platinum trophy up for grabs, if you’re one of those completionist types. Silver and Gold trophies too. I mean, you even get one for petting the dog, which feels like a public service announcement: always pet the dog. Trust me.

Anyway, the choices you make affect the characters – classic butterfly effect kind of thing. The developers, they’ve worked closely with a Council of Elders and Indigenous community members to make sure they’re not just making stuff up. Feels kinda nice knowing that, like someone actually cares.

There you have it — Two Falls – Nishu Takuatshina on PS5. It’s like a slice of history mixed with the feeling of being lost in the woods but in a really engaging way. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the review’s from a PlayStation 5 copy handed over by Affordance Studio. No idea why I felt the need to mention that, but there it is.