I guess the developers of Close to the Sun might have asked themselves a question close to "what it Bioshock was more of an adventure game?". Or maybe they were just fans of pulpy alternative history, where the famed inventor Nikola Tesla would become one of the leading scientific power in the world and build a huge ship, where all scientists were free to do their research. At the same time, jealous people sent by the governments and Edison company would try to sniff out their secrets.
Ada Archer, a journalist and a sister of one of the scientists, Rose, is on her way to Helios, the scientific heaven Tesla built. She has been invited there by her sister, but Rose never divulged the reason why she wanted Ada to come. The reason does quickly become apparent when Ada boards the Helios, as it is not only on the verge of breaking down, it is filled with corpses of the brilliant minds once working there.
Seeing the whole of Helios dead and rotting is not the oddest thing Ada witnesses on the ship. For some reason, she can see things that have taken place in the past. She can see echoes of the people who once worked and lived on the huge ship.
Rose is not among the dead however, as soon as Ada enters the ship, she contacts her with a portable radio receiver-transmitter she had sent to Ada along with the invitation to come to Helios. Quickly Rose tells her sister what to do: she has to find her research documents and then locate her from the surgery of the ship. Together they can stop whatever is taking place and escape the beacon of light turned into an abattoir.
Like I stated at the beginning, there are strong Bioshock vibes about Close to the Sun. In the end, it is quite a different kind of a game, as there is no human modification nor action/RPG elements in the game, but the whole scientific exploration gone haywire does emit a strong resemblance on the art deco world of Bioshock. The focus of Close to the Sun is more on exploration, narration and puzzle-solving, not in action.
This is not to say that there isn't any action. There is, but not in the way you'd expect, as Ada does not have guns nor can she fight. The action is in the form of running away at first from a psychotic murderer, then from monsters created by the time rift. These bits are, sadly enough, the worst element of the game, as the controls do come out a bit clunky and Ada isn't very agile nor fast.
While the game is overall, decent, there is an air of missed opportunities about it. The most interesting aspect of the story, Ada being able to see echoes of the past, isn't really explored or used as a gameplay device. This element could have been used as a way to construct interesting, multilayered puzzles, but now it is used only as a narrative gimmick.
Close to the Sun is a game with a promise it doesn't quite manage to check. As a puzzle game, it's nothing terribly exciting, as the puzzles are simple. As a horror game, it fares a little better, but the monster design is rather unimaginative. The story world the game is set is interesting, but again, there is a feeling not that much is done with this alternative history take. And to tie it all up, the game ends up with a somewhat anticlimactic cliffhanger with a promise of more to come, so a proper resolution to the story is tied on if the game manages to sell enough. Or if the studio is going to release additional stories as DLC.
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