Posted on: April 28, 2018

Juran

Games: 375 Reviews: 4

Great puzzles weak story

I did not expect such a satisfying puzzle. Thanks to the ability to create magnetic points anywhere, we have a certain freedom in solving puzzles. Level of complexity suited me better than in similar games. I really liked the arcade elements and the escape from the monsters levels. In fact, the only drawback is the weak plot.

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Posted on: July 29, 2019

Lobuz5

Verified owner

Games: 424 Reviews: 1

It's Portal, with magnets, and Cthulhu

And it's actually a pretty good "Portal but..." Mechanics are introduced and taught with good pacing, puzzles are quite diverse. From the story perspective, there's not much of it, but what is there fits quite well. I was wary of how well would Lovecraftian mythos mesh with futuristic setting, but Frogwares pulled it of.

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Posted on: April 11, 2023

Checkerboard

Verified owner

Games: 148 Reviews: 2

Bland story with clumsy gameplay

Reviewing at halfway through. Not sure if I'll be able to get through the rest of it. Pros, game has good graphics and environmental storytelling. The progression of the horror matches well with the steady decline of your surroundings, and the puzzles are designed as such that it's easy to pick out the interactables from the scenery. There is a decent amount of tension in some areas, and the music is good at fostering an uneasy but focused atmosphere. The puzzles are unique and have some challenge for a mid-level player, but not too much that you'll be stuck for hours. Even though it's clearly a Portal clone, it does well to establish its own mechanics and identity so that it doesn't feel like you're playing a cheap knockoff. Cons, the physics are cumbersome, making the game feel like a massive chore to play and making platforming difficult. The puzzles frequently involve long sections of carefully navigating slow-moving platforms, meaning that a single poorly executed jump can waste huge amounts of time as you have to retread your steps--this is particularly frustrating because it discourages experimenting to find the solution. The mechanics of the Mag-glove are also boring. It's mostly boxes and platforms. It's just not variable enough to carry an entire game, even with the minor tweaks that Gamaji (a Studio Ghibli character in a Lovecraft horror? Really???) makes to the glove as you progress. I'd be willing to put up with the clumsy gameplay if the story was good, but both the story and characters are uninteresting and underbaked. Special mention goes to the protagonist, whose generic commentary effectively kills any enjoyment of the horror. The Lovecraft elements also feel very forced; Lovecraft's horror is best as a subtle, slow build to a final terrifying revelation. This feels more like just copy-pasting in the monsters and cults without putting in the time to build them up properly That said, I'd recommend giving it a chance if you catch it on sale.

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Posted on: June 23, 2014

slagathor112

Verified owner

Games: 298 Reviews: 6

Solid First Person Puzzler

I was expecting little more than a contrived Portal Clone and, admittedly, the first few levels looked like they had been copy-pasted from Portal, but the unique puzzle mechanics and ever-evolving maps that make a unique and worthwhile challenge. The mechanics are straight forward and are elaborated upon effectively without the need for dialogue or tutorials. The story cheapened the whole experience for me a bit, though.

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Posted on: September 21, 2014

MarkoH01

Verified owner

Games: 1434 Reviews: 63

Fun only needs a little magnetism

I really love this game. Its mechanism (you can magnetize objects pos. or neg. shown in different colours) is quite easy but the puzzles sometimes are very hard especially at the end of the game. It takes some time to manage it and to complete the game but it is very much fun because you'll try so many different things and you will probably fail repeatedly. So it is quite an achievement if you finally manage one of the harder puzzles and realizes how simple the solution really is. My thinking often was TOO complicated and the things I tried were quite extreme but the fun in the game is that you CAN try them. Sometimes there are multiple solutions to a riddle which makes the game even more fun. People often compare this to Portal or Portal 2 and a little bit it feels the same way. Magnetism however is a thing we all know from reality and Portals are not - so there was a difference in the feel of the game for me. The story of the game however is set in the far future and changes later in the game quite a bit so it gets more and more unrealistic and I have to say that the story is not good and not well written at all. It feels like bits and pieces put together. Because of the fact that there are dangers involved later in the game (and you only have you non deadly mag gun) influences the puzzles in the game. There are now time specific action sequences in which you can die - I really hated those and they did not really fit into the game so far. Controls are easy to use and rebindable but remember that you have to edit a ini file if you want to rebind your mouse buttons. If you want to play a really good puzzle game with an easy to use mechanic but with different (but always logical) puzzles and a quite unusual setting then this is your game. Please don't buy this game because you are so interested in the story because this is the weakest part of the game. It is a great puzzler and the devs were really good in using the mechanics to create quite challenging puzzles.

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