My only disappointment with this game is that the pricetag and the demo left me with the impression that there would simply be a lot more content here than there actually is. I only had to look up the solutions for about 3-5 of the puzzles -- which is pretty good for me, as I get stumped and frustrated pretty easy. Only one puzzle (the end of Crossing the Gap) had a stupid "WTF - how was I supposed to know that" solution. The other ones I didn't get were in the last world, where I had trouble really utilizing the platforms that isolate you from time reversal. Considering the lack of any tutorial and my general ineptitude with puzzles, I'm surprised how quick and pleasantly I got through everything.
Other than that, it's a pretty cool puzzle game and I like the mood and art very much. I don't understand why there is so much hatred here for it.....just misdirected aggression towards GAF and the developer? Is there anything here that's really worth hating? Maybe it doesn't resonate with you, but it's not offensively bad.
First, before I start in on any ranting, let me make this clear: I'm 100% only talking about the gameplay. I think the sound and visual direction of the game is really unique and awesome. I also appreciate the impressive quality of what Blow has achieved here from a programming/game engine standpoint (especially by himself). Ok, onwards.
I consider myself very much like you describe yourself in that first paragraph - I get stumped and frustrated quite easily, and I'm generally inept when it comes to complex puzzles. However, I found almost everything you said about the game to be the exact opposite of my experience. Many of the pieces I got, I stumbled across the solution just by exhausting every option I could see that was open to me. Trial-and-error is the worst kind of puzzle design - it's the reason in my mind that the traditional point-and-click adventure died in the 90's (until it's recent revival at the hands of Telltale, who have spent a pretty huge amount of effort countering that criticism with well-cued puzzles and an extensive hint system). Several of the pieces I did get I only got after considerable frustration, either with the puzzle's execution or the puzzle's demand for exacting platforming. Over two dozen of the pieces I didn't complete. About half of those, I messed around with them for a few minutes and didn't feel like I was making any progress at all. For the other half, I literally tried them once or twice and was like 'I don't see what I'm supposed to do here at all' and just moved on. As in, I couldn't even see any options to try to solve it. I FAQed a couple of them and was like 'wow, I'd never figure that out'.
I mean, ultimately it's just a matter of you either being more patient, better at puzzles, or having it 'click' more than I. All of that is fine. In fact, the game is fine. I'm with many of the others in this thread in feeling that the problem here lies in how every damn person is losing their mind over the game. It makes a number of really obvious amateur game design mistakes. What bugs me the most is that I see unending praise for it from the
blogs of designers who write books and articles about those mistakes and how to avoid them. That is more frustrating to me than I can put into words. Seeing designers I genuinely admire heap praise on this or mention it as the 'best game since Portal' or 'the game that made me buy a 360', etc.... makes me want to hang my head in shame and throw my head back to scream at the injustice all at the same time.
To reiterate: this is a decent game. It's probably worth 15 bucks if you liked the demo. IT IS NOT THE NEXT PORTAL.
