Licurg: The graphical design of this game looks really good . How's the rest of it ?

Endzville: God, fucking fix the size limit of the reviews already...

Here's a slightly edited review I wrote for a website a while ago. It's not particularly in-depth, as it was only an appeal to the bigger one, but I figure it's worth posting anyway since I think it implies that the game is far more interesting than you might expect it to be. Needless to say - can't recommend it enough.

Upon completing this game I had to go to Facepalm Games’ website to double check something. And, nope, my eyes did not deceive me; this really is their first game, and only four people were involved in making it. Wow. From the mysterious opening credits, straight to its shocking conclusion, I was, to my great surprise, completely hooked. When I got this game there were only two things I really knew about it: that the gorgeous art was made from clay and household objects, and that the puzzles were centred around a rather cool cloning mechanic. What I didn't expect was that the art style would be used to create some of the most unbearably lonely atmosphere I've ever seen in a game (due also to some excellent ambient sound design as well as a chilling soundtrack); and that the use of the Swapper, the game’s titular device, would play a bigger role than I thought it would in what turned out to be a thought-provoking story. But more on that in a moment.

The use of cloning creates one hell of a puzzle game; the kind, rarer and rarer these days, that forces us to stop and think about what we're doing. They start off easily enough of course, but challenging new concepts - like the inability to swap with a clone inside a certain light source; or gravity-swapping panels - are steadily introduced and then combined with one another to create some truly mind-bending puzzles. Some turn out to be deceptively simple but a lot of others, particularly those towards the end of the game, will have you killing clone after clone as you try to discover a solution.

That’s where the narrative comes in. A lot of your clones will die in this game. It won't initially be something that particularly saddens you either. You may even delight in watching them fall to their deaths from high chasms, and maybe even send them to such an end on purpose. I know I sure did. After all, they’re not me, right? They're just clones of my body. Another can always be created to replace the last, so who cares? That’s when the game started asking me some philosophical questions and began to introduce some twists on my perception of how all this cloning worked. Suddenly this wasn't so amusing after all. But here’s the kicker: between the brilliant puzzles and these difficult questions, I can't tell you which of the two had me thinking more, and I cannot for the life of me remember how, when or why my first clone died; and these realisations, I hope, speak highly of what you can expect from this game not only as you play it, but when you turn it off too.

IAmSinistar: Damn, didn't realise the initial price is 50% off. Crapdoodle, may have to pile it on the backlog now. I am weak against bargains, GOG used half-off, it's super effective!

mistermumbles: Screw the backlog. You must play it now! =P Seriously though, this is truly a shining example of some great indie work. I would very much put it above some AAA games I've played this year simply due to how much I'm enjoying it. ;)