Quantum Conundrum Review

Odds are, Quantum Conundrum will give you serious Portal vibes, and for good reason: The cartoony new first-person puzzler is designed by Kim Swift, one of the creators of the original Portal. While this multi-dimensional mind-boggler doesn't quite match the genius of its forebear, it delightfully says, "Laws of physics be damned!" and hands over the keys to four distinct dimensions beyond our own.

Conundrum sends you on a quest of inter-dimensional problem solving to rescue your mad-scientist uncle, who has gone missing somewhere in his labyrinthine mansion. The professor's latest invention, the Inter-dimensional Shift Device (or ISD), should prove quite useful in navigating the obstacles in each room -- obstacles like death lasers and pools of skin-melting "science juice." (On a side note, why would anyone build rooms like this? That is a conundrum for another time…)

Playing this game will feel instantly familiar to anyone who’s spent time with Portal. You move from room to room solving one environmental puzzle at a time. The only characters to be found are robots. And an unseen person on the god mic (your uncle) fills the GLaDOS role, providing colorful commentary on your performance every step of the way.

Does Quantum Conundrum have you completely confounded? Solutions for every puzzle are a click away in the Quantum Conundrum Wiki.

But Quantum's shifty abilities provide their own special kind of brain teasers. Rather than pondering portals, here you're thinking about weight, speed, and velocity -- sometimes all at once.

The Interdimensional Shift Device (or IDS) lets you freely phase into four dimensions, each changing the physical properties of your environment in different ways. For example, say you need to drop something heavy on a switch. In the fluffy dimension, everything sheds its weight and can be lifted with ease.

That's a very basic example, but as you’d expect, the puzzles become much more complex as you progress, with the IDS also empowering you to reverse gravity and bend time. Eventually you'll enter the fluffy dimension, pick up a heavy object, throw it, switch to the slow time dimension so you can hop on, then alternate reversing gravity while you ride on the heavy object's wave of inertia over some deathtrap. Quantum Conundrum stumped me a few times, but never frustrated me.

The four dimensions in Quantum Conundrum are:

Fluffy: Heavy objects can easily be carried or blown by the wind.

Heavy: Light objects become paper weights. Useful for pressing switches.

Slow Motion: Time slows to a crawl but you move at normal speed.

Reverse Gravity: Anything not tied down will float to the ceiling.

Is it safe?

Though the puzzles often dazzle with brilliant design, the interior decorating of the mansion where you spend all your time shows less imagination. You wander through the same hallways passing the same books all throughout the game, and the corridors lack detail. It doesn’t really feel like a wacky, Doc Brown-like inventor lives here.

Story-wise, your uncle communicates with you from the Netherworld during your journey, dropping hint after hint about his whereabouts. Unfortunately, the big reveal with regard to his fate ends up being pretty insignificant -- it seems like a twist is being foreshadowed the whole time, but ultimately the opportunity is missed.

Which leads me to the real let down: the disappointing ending. I'm not going to spoil anything, of course, but know that the end of your five-hour adventure lacks both climax and satisfaction. It’s neither heavy nor fluffy enough.

Source : ign[dot]com