Quantum Conundrum (Xbox 360)
Developed By : Airtight Games
Published By : Square Enix
Category : First Person, Puzzle, Platformer
Release Date : June 2012 (PC) / July 2012 (Playstation Network / Xbox Live Arcade)
Quantum Conundrum
Story
Our game begins as you, the unnamed and silent nephew, enter your Uncle Quadwrangle's house. Your uncle hadn't been expecting you, and finds himself in the middle of an experiment that ends up going wrong. He ends up trapped in a pocket dimension that still allows him to see you and communicate with you, thus able to inform you of the current situation. His mansion is trapped in a sort of limbo between different dimensions, all with different properties. He can't remember everything that transpired that led to the way things, but he's pretty sure you can help him fix it.
Just inside the door, your uncle directs you to pick up a glove which can control the altering properties of these dimensions, and you'll need it as you work your way through each wing of the house to restart the generators that will safely allow your uncle out of the pocket dimension.
Or so he hopes...
Gameplay
Things start off with a short cutscene to explain the situation, but as soon as it ends it's pretty much all and only actual gameplay for the remainder of your time. When your uncle sends you off, he informs you that the house is divided into three wings,e ach with it's own generator that needs to be kicked on, naturally giving you your three acts of the game.
Each wing of the house is trapped and being altered by it's own dimension, and as you visit each one, the game pretty much follows the same formula. You'll have your glove which allows you to manually control these dimensions, but as you're introduced to each new one, you won't have that control. For the first few rooms, it will be self-controlled providing you the opportunity to learn the new properties being introduced to you.
But, once you get control of these dimensions, they are a ton of fun. There's four all together, despite their being three wings. The first wing tackles two, but they go hand in hand with each other, presenting you with the weight dimension. Your glove will possess the ability to make things super light, or super heavy. Wing two gives you the time dimension, where things can be extremely slowed down. And the last wing messes with gravity, allowing it to be flipped completely so up is down.
Now, there's one key detail to keep in mind with all these dimensions. You maintain the same properties relatively. So when you flip gravity, you don't float upwards yourself, you'll need to ride some sort of surface. Or when you slow down time, you move at a normal speed which means that floating objects can become stepping stones or bridges.
All these things will be absolutely key in navigating through the mansions wings. There are all sorts of switches that you'll encounter that need to be weighed down, multiple switches that will need to be seemingly hit at the same time, and wide open gaps that will need to be surfed across. All in the name of saving your uncle on what was supposed to be a nice quiet visit...
How Much of a Conundrum?
One thing is for certain, Quantum Conundrum doesn't hold back at all. It almost immediately thrusts you into some noteworthy challenges. And just as soon as you find your way to the end of a wing and restart the generator, feeling like you've mastered the things you've learned, the game throws another dimension at you. For the most part, the issue ends up being that you focus too much on the new dimension by itself, instead of stepping back and trying to figure out how it works with the others. At least, that was generally my issue as I came across the new properties in the game.
Another thing the game does is it manages to make use of both making things fun, and making things frustrating. There are levels that are a blast and as soon as you finish them you'll want to replay them again. While there's others that will make you want to throw your controller as hard as you can. Still, no matter how frustrating, once you get to the end of each wing you'll be nothing but satisfied with the work that you've done.
What's cool about this, is the connection you'll make as soon as you fire it up. Right away, it feels and looks very similar to yet another first person puzzle game, Portal. The best part about this, is the connection is totally warranted! One of the lead directors that worked at Valve and oversaw Portal, Kim Swift, ended up directing this project after she left Valve to work at Airtight Games. Which ended up opening the door for pretty nifty easter eggs like this one...
Final Verdict
Quantum Conundrum is easily a puzzle game that is worth playing. Whether or not you've dipped your toes into Portal, you absolutely need to play this one if you're a fan of the genre. Yes, it does start off with some strong resemblance to Portal but it very quickly becomes it's own creature. You yourself aren't the key piece that moves through the level, instead you essentially need to make the level work for you.
I personally had a lot of fun with this game, and if I could give myself short term memory loss and forget it, I'd do it in a heartbeat just so I could play it again for the "first" time. if you snag it on console, you should be able to pick it up for about $9.99, and it goes for the same normally on Steam. However, when Steam has it's sales, this one usually goes extremely cheap: just $.98, and for an extra $1.99, you can get two DLC packs with extra puzzles and a digital copy of the games soundtrack (based on the most recent sale). I absolutely and fully recommend Quantum Conundrum no matter which platform you intend to play it on.
