Since the huge success of a tiny game you may have heard of called Portal, there was a … well, not a surge of similar titles, but there are certainly more first person puzzle platformers than there were previously. Q.U.B.E. originally came out in 2011 on Desura, with the director’s cut debuting in 2014. It recently made the jump from PC to consoles, and that’s the platform (PS4) this review will be regarding.
As previously mentioned, it’s difficult to not make comparisons with the hugely popular game that involves blue and orange. Once you get past the aesthetic though, you have a fairly solid puzzle game. Q.U.B.E. (Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion) utilizes four colored blocks as the base for all puzzles. Each block has a different ability, be it launching an object or serving as a set of stairs. The ways in which they must be utilized range from elementary to quite a bit more difficult as the game progresses, as you’d expect.
The director’s cut of the game added in a few new features that console players may wonder how it released without – probably the biggest being the story. While the game is perfectly fine without the exposition, it’s nice to have something driving you along as you complete puzzles. Other additions include a new musical score and the addition of time trials, and if you’re playing on PC and have an Oculus Rift, you can use that too.
The game doesn’t have a tutorial in the sense you expect from games nowadays – rather, it presents you with a problem and expects you to figure out the solution by experimentation. This works for the most part, but there were times I got past parts of the game that I believe were intended to be completed in a different manner. That is to say, I glitched my way through a few puzzles. Sadly, it wasn’t even my intention; I tried something I thought would work, and it did, but notably wasn’t supposed to, as I saw when I tried to replicate it. Aside from bugs though, the puzzles themselves are fairly enjoyable. And in addition to the bulk of the game’s puzzles, there are also secret puzzles to complete (which yield trophies/achievements).
The game is relatively short, even when you don’t know the solutions already. But if you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll most likely enjoy this title. If you play these games for the laughs in dialogue, I’m afraid you won’t find much of that here. And if you’re looking for something that will let you progress by mashing buttons, you’ll once again be disappointed. It’s fun for what it is, but it feels like it could’ve been more. A fun game, albeit flawed, with the ending leaving a slightly bad taste in my mouth.
6 out of 10
Pros
- Varying Types of Puzzles
- Added Story/Time Trials
Cons
- Glitches Ruining Puzzles/Solutions
- Ending
Q.U.B.E. Director’s Cut was developed and published by Toxic Games. The Director’s Cut version of the game launched on PC May 21st, 2014, and on PS4 July 21st for $9.99. The PS4 version of the game was provided to us for review. If you’d like to see more of Q.U.B.E. Director’s Cut, check out the official site.
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