Video games exist for many different purposes. Some are strictly multiplayer affairs designed to exercise our creative muscles. Some are lengthy solo adventures to get lost in — like an epic fantasy novel brought to life. And some function mostly as vehicles for story, emotion, and ambiance. 35MM, a humble, earnest effort from indie developer Sergey Noskov, falls into this last camp. It features physical and mental challenges, sure, but its purpose is to tell a story, to build characters, to reveal something about ourselves and our world.

Set in post-apocalyptic Russia, 35MM follows two survivors of a deadly pandemic. As they travel together through forests and abandoned settlements, and escape predators both animal and human, we learn a little about them and the ruined world they inhabit. There's something tragic about these characters, above and beyond the apocalypse. They speak rarely, and mostly walk in silence through a wasted, gray landscape.

Like the best storytellers, Noskov shows, and doesn't tell. What the game refuses to say via dialogue or exposition, it makes clear via environmental clues: left-behind letters, newspaper clippings, bloodied bodies covered in flies. You can experience so much of the game's vibe simply by walking through it and letting it wash over you. 35MM, in the end, boasts a remarkably rich, realistic sense of place.

For all the game's successes in environmental storytelling and atmosphere, it struggles in most other categories. For starters, 35MM doesn't have a clear direction when it comes to gameplay. In general, it would be safe to label 35MM a "walking simulator", but it includes elements of survival games, action games, and puzzle-solving adventure games. Yet most of these elements are underdeveloped or awkward. Ultimately, 35MM features a grab bag of tools and mechanics that never gel into a cohesive, rewarding experience. Even the game's namesake — the protagonist's 35mm camera — isn't fully woven into the game; it's really just a photo mode.

The walking simulation parts of the title are okay. As mentioned above, there's something immersive and effective about marching across the Russian countryside, slinking through abandoned homes, and experiencing the story through exploration. Issues start to pop up if you attempt to explore too widely or too quickly. The outdoor environments in 35MM might look vast, but in reality they're boxed in by invisible walls. Try to investigate too far off the beaten path and you'll receive the immersion-defeating warning "do not need to go far". Exploring quickly is also difficult, since the main character's default walking speed is very slow and if you sprint too long you'll run out of stamina.

Stamina falls into the game's survival mechanics bucket, alongside hunger and health. As you move through the game, your health will fall, either by enemy action or fatigue. Using collected tins of food or health kits, you can replenish your health. In the context of a post-apocalyptic odyssey, survival elements make sense, but they're only half-baked in 35MM — more of an inconvenience than anything.

The weakest part of 35MM, though, is action, which regrettably happens with greater frequency in the second half of the game. You're either stuck with awkward, unsatisfying QTE segments or, when firearms are introduced, clumsy gunplay.

The strongest part of 35MM, conversely, is light puzzle-solving. Perhaps the game's best sequence involves an underground facility where the main character is separated from his traveling companion and needs to navigate dark tunnels to make his way above ground. The atmosphere in this section is especially dense, and its focus on problem-solving plays to the game's strengths. You'll have to explore living quarters to find the code for a locked door, move objects to cross a flooded area, and manipulate a metal-cutting machine. Now, the puzzles aren't unusually demanding or original, but they're good enough.

35MM is a lower-budget title, so don't go in expecting cutting-edge graphics. The assets are dated (the game is six years old now, to be fair) and some of the animations — in particular enemy death animations — are wooden. That said, there is something captivating about Noskov's bleak vision of the post-apocalypse. It's beautiful in its ugliness, as counter-intuitive as that sounds.

You'll only be able to experience the washed out, crumbling world of post-pandemic Russia for so long, however. 35MM is a short game — 4-5 hours long depending on how much you explore and how long you linger. There are multiple endings to unlock, triggered by optional interactive segments throughout your adventure, but once you've seen the end credits roll once it's unlikely you'll rush to boot up the game again.

35MM is designed to tell a story and on that front it succeeds. Sergey Noskov has crafted interesting characters, a powerful melancholy mood, and a convincing sense of place. Regrettably, the gameplay elements that surround the narrative aren't up to par. Exploration and problem-solving are okay, but survival is underdeveloped and action is plain bad. This is a story-first type of game, for better or worse.