This caught my eye on Apple Arcade, and I ended up having a nice evening with it, finishing in one play session.

Stela is a “cinematic platformer”, a genre started by Prince of Persia that emphasises grounded, realistic physics and movement. It’s very linear and has puzzles and timing challenges sprinkled throughout, but the key feature here is the atmosphere. It’s not an unfamiliar scenario: our heroine awakes and must traverse a grim, mysterious world to fulfill her nebulous destiny. But what a world, with excellent use of colour and shadows so that every screen is striking.

Things are bad in this world, with swarms of carnivorous beetles, burrowing predators, and gaunt, ghoulish humanoids on the prowl. You’re made to feel relatively helpless, such that every minor victory and narrow escape feels thrilling. The final few levels are a bit more abstract and a nice change of pace.

There’s not much more to say really. It’s a short game but this works to its advantage, to tell a self-contained story without overstaying its welcome. There is a secret to find in each chapter (I got 3 of the dozen or so) that unlock a diorama to view in the main menu, and you’re able to revisit any section easily if you want to find them. But either way, what’s here is well-executed, I enjoyed Stela very much.