|| REVIEW || You Don't Have Time (PC)

Developed By : White Puppet Studio               Published By : White Puppet Studio
Category : Puzzle, First-Person                                      Release Date : July 30, 2019

You Don't Have Much

At least not when you wake up in the room...wherever you are. All you have is yourself and the...well you don't even know if you've got clothes on your back because you can't see yourself. You Don't Have Time starts you off waking up in a room and all you can see is a screen outside of the room that is counting the time, a panel with a button in front of you, and a generator on the wall. It doesn't take much to figure out that you need to power on the panel and press the button and voila! You've escaped...

...into the next room. As you wander through the two dozen rooms before you, a robotic voice will inform you that you are not the first to be in this place, to be tested. But that maybe, just maybe, you can be the one who sees it through to the end. This voice will be your guide as you take on the challenging puzzles ahead, offering insight (sometimes) and snarky comments about the inevitable mistakes you'll make (most of the time). 

Do You Have The Brains (and Patience)? 

As I said, the game is comprised of about two dozen puzzles. For the most part, the elements that make up the puzzles themselves repeat throughout the game. Naturally, though, their difficulty will slightly increase as you progress. Sometimes...not so slightly. Each room is a self-contained puzzle, who's solution you'll need to deduce before you can progress into the next one. 

The elements you'll encounter are things like numbered keypads which need a code entered into them. Sometimes even the code itself can be the puzzle, since it might not be entered as you plainly see it. There is a four-colored pad which resembles Simon Says that can present some tough memory-games for a puzzle. Some switches will trigger something that will have to be completed in a short time limit, while other switches are hidden within the walls and are incredibly hard to see until you find and activate them.

No Really, Do You Have The Patience?

I found the entirety of  You Don't Have Time to be enjoyable overall, however it wasn't a perfect journey from start to finish. The idea behind each of the rooms is that the puzzles all have some sort of tell, some way to give you a hint at what needs to be done to solve it. For instance, one room has the number for the next room constantly flickering and flipping itself reversed, as a hint that the code for your current room should be entered in backwards. 

Obviously the pull of a puzzle game is for it to be tough. You want it to be complex so that things aren't just a breeze to walk through. The other side of that coin, though, is that you still want it to feel solvable instead of hopeless. And that's just how some of the solutions felt after getting some assistance with the solution. I don't want to use too many specific examples from the solutions since they are so limited but let's just say one of them gives you the ability to reach one very small, specific thing from a great distance...and there's no obvious hint that you are able to do so.

One of the other predominant frustrating things were the hidden switches. These were very small panels that were nearly invisible, and would remain so until you were able to detect and activate them. Some were easy to find, you could just pinch yourself right against the wall and look up or down, looking for a slight hint of something sticking out. 

In the end, it really is an enjoyable game. I have played a good amount of puzzle games over the years, and all the ones that I loved the most had one thing in common : they all got tough, they all got frustrating, and they all had moments that made me think I wanted to just shut it off right then and there. You Don't Have Time had those moments as well, but like all the others I toughed through it, saw it to the end, and loved every moment of it when I got to that end screen. 

Despite the frustrating moments, there are plenty of times where this game does something in a unique way, and that is what really gives this game the edge. Puzzle games have existed, and will continue to do so, for a long time. Other than changing the settings and stories, it's always going to be a hard genre to stand out in. So to be able to do something different, and do it in a good way speaks volumes about a game. This is one of those games. It's cheap, it's tough, but it is one hell of a game to play and one you won't regret experiencing. Check it out on Steam today.

Game Rating : 7.5/10

Pick up the game HERE

Game Played On : PC (Steam)
Key was provided by White Puppet Studio via Keymailer