![]() It’s about that moment where it clicks into place. It’s puzzles are never so tricky that they seem unfair. Superliminal’s goal is to make you the player feel smart and clever. “Perception is….”Įven in these early stages, there was always a joy in figuring out the puzzle solutions. But pretty soon, you’ll break beyond the boundaries-both figuratively and literally-and fall ever deeper into this dream state where anything is possible. A tiny wedge of cheese becomes an enormous ramp. A large object becomes small enough to pull through a tiny gap. The earliest puzzles are about shifting the size of objects based on how you see them. These tests serve as the building blocks for understanding how Superliminal wants you to think, literally and figuratively altering your perspective in order to solve a number of puzzles. A disembodied and mildly sinister AI voice, very obviously emulating Portal’s GLaDOS, begins guiding you through a series of preliminary tests. Sometimes it’s about sheer execution of concept, and Superliminal thinks outside the box before diving back into the box, and then cloning the box within the box and thinking outside of both of them while firmly within a third you didn’t even realize exists. Not that one needs precision controls in a game like this, but it did make jumping on objects and reaching ledges sometimes more of a hassle than it should have been. My first reaction on loading it up was that it looked and felt a bit “budget.” The visuals are exceptionally simplistic, the controls a bit floaty and imprecise. Cue the console release, where Superliminal’s mind-bending, perception-altering puzzler finally comes to the living room. But being a console gamer, I didn’t bother looking into it much further. At the time, I remember seeing intriguing videos of the game’s signature “size is perspective” mechanic, where players resized objects based on their perspective. ![]() Superliminal first released for PC back in November 2019. It is as much within those categorical boxes as it is without. A puzzle game that is about the adventure more than the puzzles, about how the player comes to the solutions more than the solutions themselves, Superliminal exists somewhere between Portal, The Witness, and an MC Escher painting, and yet is wholly unbound to being defined by those limitations. Superliminal is never quite what you think it is, and in that, it’s always exactly what it’s trying to be. Every time I think I’ve got Superliminal pegged, every time I think I’ve figured it out, it takes another left turn and defies my expectations. A smile creeps over my face and I shake my head, grinning. To counteract this, the final third of Superliminal trades the element of challenge for artistic merit to pick up those loose ends.“Son of a bitch…” I mutter too loudly under my breath for the 20th time. The game is comprised of thematic sections, but it seems to play its trump cards immediately, as if out of excitement.Ĭhief among Superliminal’s issues is that it underplays its story in the first half of the game, and even when it explains the world around you, it’s at the wrong points of gameplay, when you’re engrossed in its clever puzzles. It’s a simple case of pacing: while the puzzles are often clever, they’re not as plentiful, nor do they push the established mechanics further than those opening stages did. Sadly, for all its highs, Superliminal seems to lose its way in its second half. ![]() Superliminal also has the honor of creating one of the most atmospheric “horror” sections I’ve enjoyed in a game for a long time: one that played out in a way I simply never expected, but one that’s testament to Shih’s carefully curated universe. Corridors may look navigable until you get closer, when you realize you’ve been duped by anamorphosis puzzles are regularly ridiculous to the point of laughter even the loading screens raise a smile in a way that the story, and the narration, never quite achieve. This comedy is one of Superliminal’s key strengths. You’ll find an odd pattern, which when lined up, creates a new object or path in another area, items endlessly duplicate, adding a surprisingly well-executed idea that incorporates a genuine level of humor. In its first half, the game has a consistent habit of stumping you, especially when it introduces a new ability to play with. Superliminal's flagship forced perspective element is superbly executed. ![]()
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