Displaying items by tag: Puzzle
With deadly bugs that prevent key gameplay mechanics, zero replayability, and an astonishingly small amount of content (<30 minutes to complete), Beat the Game is a visual masterpiece more akin to a brief bad trip at a Tomorrowland than an actual game. If you’re into audio or music production and are looking for something that will let you develop and explore it in a different light, you will be disappointed. However, when it comes to cinematography, BtG is a high nine. With a bit more care and effort from solid game and sound designers, this novelty release could have been great. And if you need drugs to enjoy music, you’re doing it wrong.
Suicide Guy caters to the underserved demographic of people who enjoy 3D puzzle platformers, except this serving is more of a home-cooked meal from Grandma’s house after she had gotten dementia. It’s made with love, and is good at certain parts, but in the end, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Graphics and level design can be clever at times, but are essentially ruined by the frustrating physics and collision, lack of any good music, repetitive sound effects, half-finished animations, and stale platforming. I want to love Suicide Guy, and I do, in a way -- I appreciate the effort that was made, but when I was done I felt unsatisfied and dead inside.
KISS Ltd and Hydra Interactive Entertainment announced that as of today, PC gamers can play their paper platformer via Steam Early Access, highlighting that Upside-Down Dimensions is an enchanting and unique game that combines action, hack n slash, RPG, stealth, platform and co-op puzzles for a truly remarkable gameplay experience.
The Gardens Between is a surreal puzzle adventure that follows best friends, Arina and Frendt, as they fall into a mysterious world of beautiful garden islands. The player can traverse back and forwards in time to discover each garden's secrets and, along the way, reveal a story about friendship, childhood and growing up.
No70: Eye of Basir is an ambitious title; while the visuals and audio are noteworthy, in the critical areas of story and gameplay, Basir is passable, not exceptional. The brief plot explores, then seems to abandon, what appeared to have been a key plot point, and, at times, it’s a bit unclear who your character even is. Issues with performance and geometry clipping, combined with some sloppy foliage and prop placement, occasionally break immersion: No70: Eye of Basir is a flawed gem with some good facets.
Embark on a journey of discovery and inspiration in The Search - a story-driven puzzle-adventure set in a mysterious world where art comes to life! In an unknown world, you'll search for clues about the nature of this place, as well as your own past. Guided only by the letters of a mysterious stranger, you'll find that this universe works differently from our own.
Subject A-119 makes a strong showing with a variety of abilities, but the puzzles, through mechanical and logical limitations, quickly fatigue the player. Puzzle addicts might be tempted to explore this title but, overall, Subject A-119 mechanics are more confusing than the actual puzzles, ultimately leaving players underwhelmed.
After decades of toil, an old machinist plots his escape from Communism, through manipulation and scheming. Along the road, he befriends the most unlikely creature, an abandoned robot. Could they solve the puzzles and flee this bleak world together?
Black The Fall has the makings of a deep and emotional retelling of life under a totalitarian communist regime. The literally dark, oppressive, and intimidating imagery combines with the music, sound effects, and mechanics to narrate scenes without using a single word, and that alone has to be respected.
Empathy: Path of Whispers is an atmospheric and story-driven adventure game where you explore a seemingly abandoned world through the emotions and memories of the people who once inhabited it, trying to restore the world’s lost balance by journeying through its past.
In the brief time it takes to complete it, Old Man’s Journey plays out the calm yet deliberate journey of an aging man, set to right the wrongs of his youth once upon a time he chose the call of the sea to that of family. Here is a title that shines a positive philosophy onto a player’s path, reminding us that not everything about life must be hard and complicated. The Old Man’s Journey made me cry, but it also left me with a smile.
While The Franz Kafka Videogame ends up feeling a tad pretentious in its use of Kafka’s name, the artwork and some of the puzzles are worth appreciating. Bits and pieces can be frustrating, and the short play time is a downside, but fans of experimental point-and-click adventures might still want to check this one out.
Five Elements is an original, challenging, and solid real-time strategy game. Apart from those accolades, though, there’s not much else to wow the player. If you're a lover of strategy and puzzles for the sake of strategy and puzzles, you will most likely find it a worthy addition to your collection. If you aren't, then Five Elements may prove to be frustratingly challenging and lacking enough of a storyline to keep you going.
Saucer-Like is a short-form art piece in its genre. Beautiful art is the main focus in the narrative, with over forty hand-drawn backgrounds, each featuring rich contrasts. Saucer-Like is a solid recommendation to classic point-and-click adventure devotees, and to gamers who seek stories that stick in their heads, the sole caveat being the length of the title, which leaves much to be desired.
Manipulated creates a unique experience with a simple structure by implementing multiple different types of puzzles and challenges throughout the various levels. The art style is cartoonish and elementary, and the humor and voice-acting can be overdone, but it fits with the overall silly feel of the game. If you are looking for a whimsical side-scroller that will test your brain power, Manipulated is the game to buy. If slapstick comedy is not your cup of tea, the narration might come off as excessive, but the puzzles are sure to rope you back in.
The Sexy Brutale is a lush, deliciously dark game that’s part murder mystery, part puzzle-adventure.Taken individually, the components of the gameplay in The Sexy Brutale are not groundbreaking: time reversal, stealth, and puzzle-solving are fun, but not innovative, elements. How they’re combined in this game, however, is fresh and unusual. The fantastic art and flawless execution of the game make this one must-have for fans of the genre.
While Algotica isn’t likely to blow your mind with excitement from its gameplay, and it’s not going to make you a master programmer, it is an excellent first step into the world of coding done up inside an adorable, engaging and truly fun indie game package, even if it’s one that has some flaws in the writing and pacing. And while it’s a lighthearted and low-stress good time to play even if taken as just a game, for those of us who have always wanted an intro into the labyrinthine world of programming but who were too overwhelmed to dive in on our own, it’s almost a godsend.
Bomb Squad Academy is more fun than it is challenging. Negative feedback to the player, other than the bomb blowing up (of course), is thin, but this results in an approachable, replayable atmosphere. This is a fantastic puzzler with complex and unique mechanics that are presented to the player in an easily digestible way.
Kronos uses uninspired or recycled art style, storyline, and dialogue, but that's just that start of what's wrong with this title. Beyond the aesthetic issues, the bugs in Kronos are too much to ignore. Maybe with more work on bugs and glitches, Kronos could be playable enough to enjoy; for now, Kronos doesn’t come close to standing out in an already competitive genre.
Entangle is a great game. It costs ten bucks to go watch a two-hour-long movie in the theater. Entangle costs less than that for the same amount of entertainment (or potentially more). And you don’t have to put on pants for it. Seems like a deal to me.