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  • Introduction

  • Video Review

  • Gameplay Overview

  • Controls

  • Graphics, Storytelling, & Atmosphere Overview

  • Art Design

  • Conclusion

  • Introduction
  • Video Review
  • Gameplay Overview
  • Controls
  • Graphics, Storytelling, & Atmosphere Overview
  • Art Design
  • Conclusion

Pros

Cons

Introduction

Thankfully Quantum Conundrum seems to be much more Portal than Dark Void, meaning we can expect plenty of brain-breaking spatial puzzles, subtle humor, and that loveable indie charm.

Video Review

Credit: Reviewed / MJ Design Shop

Gameplay Overview

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Finding yourself all alone inside your mad-scientist uncle's impossibly huge mansion, it's up to the player to solve spatial and logic puzzles by manipulating multiple parallel dimensions. What does that mean? For example, pulling the right trigger may cause the player to instantly shift to the "fluffy" dimension, which looks rather like the regular dimension except that everything is pillowy-soft and generally cloud-like. Here in the fluffy dimension, heavy objects like iron safes are now light, and can be lifted up and even thrown with ease.

Puzzle-solving requires taking advantage of the dimensional shift. Say your only exit lies behind a glass wall. Pick up one of those fluffy safes, fling it at the wall, swap back to the regular dimension in mid-air, and the now-heavy safe will go crashing through the glass, clearing your way. If this sounds confusing or tedious, trust us, that's a problem with our powers of written description, not the game.


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Gameplay is highly reminiscent of Portal, thanks to the first-person camera perspective and simplified control interface. As we moved through each test chamb--...uh, room in the mansion, we couldn't help but think back to our time at Aperture Science, minus the iconic portal gun of course.

So far we've seen three alternate dimensions: fluffy, heavy, and slow, the latter of which literally slows time for everything around the player. Based on certain dimensional battery slots (for lack of a better term) that we've seen scattered around the mansion, we know at least four dimensions will be available, though there's no reason to assume even more won't be possible later in the game.

We have to admit, the dimension mechanic is not as intrinsically fun as the portal gun was back in 2010. While this game is likely to eventually succeed or fail based on the merits of its puzzle design, simply swapping back and forth between the fuzzy world and the heavy world doesn't give us the same satisfaction as messing around with the portal system used to.


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We spotted some collectibles called Ike's on our trip through the demo, but so far there's no indication of what purpose--if any--they'll have on the story. Otherwise, we can probably assume there will be some light reflex gameplay, as long as we're still following the Portal blueprint, and we did encounter more than one timing-based challenge.

Controls

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Control of your player character is somewhat more loose and floaty than other first-person titles, but this never became a problem or annoyance. The face buttons control physical actions like picking up objects or throwing them, while the shoulder buttons and triggers control dimensional shifting. Like all first-person console games, the dual analog sticks control movement and look direction.

Graphics, Storytelling, & Atmosphere Overview

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Graphical quality is adequate, however this is a game less for the eyes and more for the mind, so the sparsely decorated rooms aren't as worrisome as they might be in another genre. We noticed some severe jaggies on clean lines and corners, a problem exacerbated by the minimalist design. Hopefully this is just an indicator of early code, but what it really seems like is PC code ported to console.

We observed no advanced lighting effects, and with the absence of other characters there's very little animation going on here. We're guessing the ability to seamlessly transition between dimensions is eating up most of the processing power, and we can hardly complain when a developer favors smoothness over realism.

Hopefully, after the events of the demo, the mansion will open up into different and unique areas to explore. We're not sure the plain mansion motif is enough to sustain an entire game.

Art Design

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Aside from the technical aspects of the visuals, art design is very solid. A consistently cartoonish style is present throughout the game, most notably in the amusing paintings on the wall. This all pairs very well with some phenomenal voice acting by John de Lancie, whom any nerd worth their salt will remember as Q from Star Trek. He plays the voice of your uncle, Professor Fitz Quadwrangle and, based on what we've seen so far, it's hard to imagine a better man for the job. We haven't had any laugh-out-loud moments (a-la GLaDOS) quite yet, but the show floor is hardly an ideal place for subtle comedy.

Conclusion

Our concerns about Quantum Conundrum are twofold. First, we're worried the game's Interdimensional Shift Device won't have the instant appeal that the portal gun did. That means the fun may depend completely on clever puzzle design and a compelling fictional world. We know Kim Swift has it in her, but such magic is hard to predict and harder to replicate. Second, while it's true Portal was also an indie game, that project had the backing of none other than Valve Corporation, along with their distribution system, Steam, not to mention a minor narrative link with the Half-Life universe. Even if the game turns out great, it still needs to sell. Given the change in both development team and publisher, that's far from certain.

Beyond that, the game looks promising. We're dying to see what other kinds of puzzle-solving madness this game has in store, and we're especially interested in hearing what else Professor Quadwrangle has to say. Thankfully, its release may be right around the corner. Quantum Conundrum is scheduled for a summer 2012 release, and will be distributed as a downloadable title.

Meet the tester

Christopher Snow

Christopher Snow

Managing Editor

@BlameSnow

Chris was born and raised less than ten miles from our editorial office, and even graduated from nearby Merrimack College. He came to Reviewed after covering the telecom industry, and has been moonlighting as a Boston area dining critic since 2008.

See all of Christopher Snow's reviews

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