|| REVIEW || 7th Sector
Developed By : Носков Сергей Published By : Sometimes You
Category : Puzzle, Adventure, Indie Release Date : March 5, 2019
I could probably state a million times, the simple fact that I love puzzle games. It's a genre to me that requires no other criteria for me to get hooked other than having good puzzles. Now, granted, "good puzzles" is probably a term that's subjective to each individual, but I think one thing we can all agree on is that the worst feeling is when a puzzle game leaves you feeling completely helpless.
Firing up 7th Sector for the first time, I was hopeful that this wouldn't be the case. When I say feeling helpless, what I mean is those game's whose puzzles have no on-screen indicators for what the solution might be, and leaving you to fend for yourself that the solution is as obvious as the developers intended. But, with as vividly detailed as the environments were right off the bat in this game, I was positive there would be plenty of room for hints and nudges.
When you begin the game, you'll be in control of a tiny electric spark. As this spark, you'll travel through cables with the ability to hop between other cables as you move. Adjacent to these cables you'll also be able to perform the same jump into different objects which is where the puzzles occur in the game.
These puzzles can vary throughout the game, and will change depending on the "character" you are playing as. While you start off as a little spark, you'll transform into other objects as the game continues on, with the spark inhabiting each other object. These will be things such as an orb that can roll around, one of the four-legged turret patrol bots, a flying drone and a couple of others. And what's really great about 7th Sector is that the puzzles change so you're not just doing the same things as a different machine.
Playing as the spark, you'll get to inhabit small power boxes where you're in charge of flipping some switches to open up new paths for yourself. But, once you become the four-legged patrol unit you'll actually get to do a bit of combat in a short stretch of the game. As the flying drone one puzzle will require you to balance a few heavy boxes and navigate them through a small, windy section in order to open a weighted door. These "character" specific puzzles were probably my favorite feature of the game.
What left me wanting more about this game though was what I felt was the under-presenting of the world. In between puzzles, you'll see a lot of things happening in the world in the background. The audio is never loud or clear enough to give you better clues as to what exactly is going on. You'll also get opportunities to hack small message screens, which give you intriguing bits of info with less characters than a tweet, but nothing more. This made it very hard to look at 7th Sector as more than just another puzzle game.
My only lasting issue with this game is that a few of the puzzles left me frustrated at the lack of tutorial bits. First, the game is playable both with a controller or keyboard and mouse. Certain objects you interact with can be further manipulated with controls that aren't always explained to you. When using a controller, most things were done with the joysticks and main button interface. But, at one point I came across a machine that had a lever I could manipulate myself, and after struggling to figure it out, I eventually learned this lever was controlled via the controller's D-pad.
Nevertheless, this is a fantastic game in the end. The world is beautiful and the soundtrack has some good bangers for when you're solving some of the more...active puzzles. If you're a person that needs some sort of narrative to go with the gameplay you may be a unimpressed with this, but I assure you if you can overlook that fact, you'll enjoy this game.
Pick up the game HERE on Steam
Firing up 7th Sector for the first time, I was hopeful that this wouldn't be the case. When I say feeling helpless, what I mean is those game's whose puzzles have no on-screen indicators for what the solution might be, and leaving you to fend for yourself that the solution is as obvious as the developers intended. But, with as vividly detailed as the environments were right off the bat in this game, I was positive there would be plenty of room for hints and nudges.
When you begin the game, you'll be in control of a tiny electric spark. As this spark, you'll travel through cables with the ability to hop between other cables as you move. Adjacent to these cables you'll also be able to perform the same jump into different objects which is where the puzzles occur in the game.
These puzzles can vary throughout the game, and will change depending on the "character" you are playing as. While you start off as a little spark, you'll transform into other objects as the game continues on, with the spark inhabiting each other object. These will be things such as an orb that can roll around, one of the four-legged turret patrol bots, a flying drone and a couple of others. And what's really great about 7th Sector is that the puzzles change so you're not just doing the same things as a different machine.
Playing as the spark, you'll get to inhabit small power boxes where you're in charge of flipping some switches to open up new paths for yourself. But, once you become the four-legged patrol unit you'll actually get to do a bit of combat in a short stretch of the game. As the flying drone one puzzle will require you to balance a few heavy boxes and navigate them through a small, windy section in order to open a weighted door. These "character" specific puzzles were probably my favorite feature of the game.
What left me wanting more about this game though was what I felt was the under-presenting of the world. In between puzzles, you'll see a lot of things happening in the world in the background. The audio is never loud or clear enough to give you better clues as to what exactly is going on. You'll also get opportunities to hack small message screens, which give you intriguing bits of info with less characters than a tweet, but nothing more. This made it very hard to look at 7th Sector as more than just another puzzle game.
My only lasting issue with this game is that a few of the puzzles left me frustrated at the lack of tutorial bits. First, the game is playable both with a controller or keyboard and mouse. Certain objects you interact with can be further manipulated with controls that aren't always explained to you. When using a controller, most things were done with the joysticks and main button interface. But, at one point I came across a machine that had a lever I could manipulate myself, and after struggling to figure it out, I eventually learned this lever was controlled via the controller's D-pad.
Nevertheless, this is a fantastic game in the end. The world is beautiful and the soundtrack has some good bangers for when you're solving some of the more...active puzzles. If you're a person that needs some sort of narrative to go with the gameplay you may be a unimpressed with this, but I assure you if you can overlook that fact, you'll enjoy this game.
Game Rating : 7.5 / 10
Pick up the game HERE on Steam
Also available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4
A code for this game was graciously provided to the site for review
