New Portal-wannabe: Quantum Conondrum

[Zixinus]

The game released on Steam Store.

Obligatory trailer:


What follows is a brief review. I played through the game since it's release at 7PM. It's 3 AM now. I'll try to leave the spoilers out.

The game is a non-combat first-person puzzler. What it is also is, sadly, is a platformer. In the sense that you will have to time and space your jumps in first person. Now, I didn't have much problem with platforming around I admit, but I still believe that "first person" and "platforming" do not mix. There were countless situations where I would have avoided dying if the player character would actually grab unto things. Death isn't to bad though, you'll just go back to an earlier checkpoint.
One of the big hooks and marketing points is that it is the same lead designer as Portal (Kim Swift) and that it has John De Lancie as the (only) voice actor. I'll talk about John De Lancie (or at least, his character) in a bit. For now, all I'll say that it does seem to be taken out straight from portal, down to replicating several elements (item dispenser, weight-cube-botton, etc).

The story, briefly, is this: You are a kid sent to his crazy, inventor uncle's because your mother thinks he's lonely. He has a bump on his head and amnesia, talking to you through the intercom and telling you that there is only backup power. He tells you to take the magic-dimension-shifting-glove and restart the generators.
Most of the game is spent doing that, while listening to your uncle's sarcastic or derogatory quips.
About the ending, I'll only tell that it is quite underwhelming.

First off, regarding the story: your uncle is an asshole. From his description of his situation at the beginning of the game, he's in some sort of void. Throughout the game, he will make idle talk (it appears the void is in sucks random, lost items in). It is quite clear that he is stuck and cannot get out. Does he seem to realise this? No. Does he seem to realise that you, the annoying kid he had to baby-sit occasionally since he was a baby, is now his only hope? Nope.
I am sure that his character was meant to be charming, but he simply comes across as an asshole. You get nothing but scorn from him even though you are doing things (and naturally, increasingly dangerous things) for him. Now, in Portal's Glados, this worked because of the theme that you were a labrat and a plaything for the higher intelligence. Here, your Uncle is supposed to be family. Throughout the game, his attitude does not change. You would hope that there is a moment of him showing genuine concern and then bonding, but it doesn't come or at best, massively underwhelming.
Granted, he has some moments in the form of talking about his inventions (two of which you'll see but can't interact with), or the subject of various portraits.

At one point, he remarks "your mother is going to kill me" and loudly I replied "she'll have to get in line". That's the sort of attitude he inspires. I am tempted to write a fanfic where the player character grabs a sheet of paper, points it at a camera with the words "fuck you" on it, then grab a book and an Ipod or something out of his luggage and let his Uncle sort out his own mess.
I am not going to remark whether this is John De Lancie's fault or bad writing (I'm leaning towards bad writing, he could have used a dimension of misunderstood kid genius that eventually sees himself in the player character, cliché but it would be at least interesting). I'm not a good judge of actors, although I feel that maybe this is more to do with his name and popularity than his skills.

Now, the game environment: the graphics are cartoonish, which fit a theme of dangerous-but-fun science. In the game, you shift your environment (dimensions) to work your way through the puzzles. There are four dimensions: fluffy (everything is white and soft), iron/hard (everything is hard and metallic), then slow-dimension and anti-gravity-dimension. There are portraits scattered around the game that change according to the dimensional shift, with minor, amusing gags. I noticed that the book titles too are puns of famous book names.

However, there is one thing that sticks out while playing: this isn't a house. This is a portal-stlye mad-lybiriths of test chambers. At no point can you say that this is a genuine laboratory (except a bit at your uncle's office, by the virtue of shelves and blueprints). There are propsl ike couches and stuff, but just randomly thrown around. There is no kitchen, no toilet (poor kid), no living room, etc.
At one point, Uncle remarks that "this used to be the parlour" and I go "wait, you mean people could have actually lived in this place? What's wrong with you, why did you destroy that?). It would, again, have provided an interesting character ark to him if he DID tell that he was lonely and bored, restructuring the house to make puzzles for himself to his own amusement. It is hinted at by the fact that he names some of his creations and pets elaborate names (including naming a bobing bird Desmond). But no, this isn't explored either.

The puzzles themselves are the real meat of the game. They are gradually introduced and the design is good. Most can be beaten fairly quickly and I was only stopped to think a few times. Mostly, I did not know where to go. However, there were a few cases where you do have to think.

I can't recall much music going through the game, except a song at the end about the game. Yes, they copied Portal in that respect too. Maybe it would have been more interesting if it had John De Lancie sing it rather than being a generic rock song.

Overall, I have the impression of a the creator of Portal trying to make lightning strike twice. It fails, lacking the mystery of Portal. The whimsical humour is nice, but often spoiled by your grumpy Uncle's attitude (Ike is hundred times more interesting and lovable than him). It also lacks the same mystery and depth that Portal had. However, if you are looking for a good First Person Puzzler, this game will satisfy. It does just that, satisfy but not really make its own hit.

[Zixinus]

Oh, and if you would like to read a more professional review, here's Rock Paper Shotgun's. There are a couple things I'd like to fix in the above, but meh.