Magrunner: Dark Pulse

DISCLAIMER: This is a first impressions review, and NOT a full review, if you want a full review, then please read better reviews then mine PLEASE NOTE: I recommended this game with some exceptions, overall if the game did not live up to just a tiny expectation, I would not have recommended it at all, so please read the review carefully if you are thinking of buying/playing this game A nice puzzle game, however it can get a bit boring after a while. Nice graphics and a nice backstory RECOMMENDED :) Provided it is in a sale, price drop, giveaway, gift or even given to you as a free game, otherwise... NOT RECOMMENDED :( For its full price

It seems like a developer played Portal and said, "Hey, I'd like to make a game like Portal, but not actually be Portal. Maybe I'll use red and green magnets instead of orange and blue portals." And then this game was created. The only thing this game did for me was make me want to go play Portal. Go play Portal instead. It's a MUCH better and funner game. This game comes off as a cheap knock-off of an already great game. It reminds me of those cheap "Construction ChangeBot" toys you find at Big Lots that are essentially Devastator from Transformers but are made out of incredibly cheap plastic and cost $2.50 for the entire set. It's like wanting to buy a Ferrari but settling on a Pontiac Fiero. It's like wanting a nice Starbucks mocha latte espresso but just going to your local Marathon station and getting a coffee out of the vending machine instead. You get the idea. Go play Portal.

This first person puzzler reminds me of Portal on the first sight. You have a gun/glove with which you can manipulate things. Otherwise than in Portal you magnetise objects with two different poles to solve puzzles which is a very interesting concept. Compared with Portal I'd say that the puzzles are a bit more difficult. That's the case, because the puzzleelements aren't too repetitive and therefore the solutions of the puzzles aren't often foreseeable very often. The game doesn't really have a well-told story or highend graphics but that's not really important for a puzzler in my opinion. What is not so good is, that the physics are sometimes a bit wired. That's because the Unreal Engine isn't really the best choice for physics based puzzlers. An other thing is that you can view the sphere of effect when you magnetised an object by pressing F. Sometimes it is very helpfull but sometimes when there are too many objects at a place it becomes confusing. What I also realised is that in the game two of the same poles pull the objects together and two different poles push the objects away from each other. In reality it's the other way round. Nontheless Magrunner is a solid entertaining puzzler which I can recommend if you like physic based puzzlers.

Magrunner falls into the first person puzzler category, and does it rather well. like Portal, most areas in Magrunner are stand alone rooms with environmental puzzles. Unlike Portal, Magrunner uses magnetically charged objects and locks to solve said environmental puzzles. The mechanic works and is surprisingly fun. The story ain't anything new, but is pretty entertaining and worth seeing through to its conclusion. My only gripe is the lack of a map maker mode. All-in-all, Magrunner is more than worth $10.

Portal clone but in a different way that is actually good.