Antichamber

[Moat_Man]

Has anyone picked this one up? It looks Portal-esque. I'm looking for some feedback from the hive mind as it just went on sale on Steam.

[Suitably Ironic Moniker]

It's interesting. I would say it's much more abstract in its puzzle elements than Portal, and don't go into it looking for any real plot (at least as far as I've gotten, which seems to be around 2/3 of the way). The graphics are colorful and spare. It's almost like a game made by Salvador Dali and M.C. Escher.

[Lordnine]

An awful lot of people seem to like it but I just found it pretentious. Even though it’s a first person puzzle game I would say it’s the anti-portal. There are no characters, decoration, personality or any semblance of a story; just mostly empty walls and puzzles. For some people that’s enough, but the empty world bored me pretty fast and after getting lost in identical white corridors I gave up and haven’t gone back.

Another problem you might experience, the FOV is set at about 65. A lot of people report motion sickness because of this and if you hack the game files to change it you will break all the puzzles.

[Sepiche]

Yeah that kind of reflects my thoughts. I hesitate to say it was a bad game, but it definitely wasn't my thing and I got bored pretty fast.

[Moat_Man]

Thanks for the insights. It sounds like a game I might have some fun with in the beginning but then get either bored or frustrated and move on to something else. My gaming time is at a premium these days. If it had a bit of story I might be more inclined to check it out.

[Kasey Chang]

Thanks to OO SS, I got Antichamber, and it's... Portal Esque, but whereas Portal relies on PHYSICAL puzzles (albeit, with portals bending a few dimensions), Anti-Chamber relies on completely abstract puzzles, where you're basically given a 'toy box' to explore, and as you explore you'll learn to NOT rely on your instincts. Forward is not always progress (you may have to back up sometimes), some requires looking for "grates" to jump onto, or hidden stairs, and so on. All I can say is... it's weird, and like "Gone Home", it's definitely not for everyone as there's a lot of "WTH do I do here?" type of moments, where the element you're supposed to move onto, into, etc. isn't always obvious. Walls may not be solid, etc. etc.

[Hipolito]

Sometimes I'll start a game and decide I'm going to complete it without consulting a walkthrough. That happened with Antichamber. After 30 hours, many of them spent desperately wandering through the same puzzle rooms again and again looking for solutions, I'm relieved to say I've beaten the game.

All the talk about M.C. Escher, weird physics, and shifting environments is correct, but it's only half the story. The other half is the puzzles that require you to manipulate little cubes. You're going to be seeing these cubes in your sleep. As you complete more puzzles, you gain more cube-manipulation abilities, helping you solve puzzles you couldn't before. And these puzzles require creativity and experimentation, like the Portal games but I'd say more intensely so here.

There are lots of cute little sketch drawings on the walls that serve as hints or motivators. You can gauge your progress in the game by viewing your collection of the drawings in the main menu. Quite often, a drawing will refer to a puzzle you'd just solved, maybe because it was possible to have entered that puzzle room from the other direction. And all too often, solving a room will lead you back to an area you've seen a thousand times before. That's disappointing, but at least you can warp to any room from the map screen so that you can take on unsolved puzzles right away. A few of the toughest rooms lead to easter egg areas with "behind the scenes" looks at the game's development. I hated when that happened! I didn't pull out my hair for hours in hopes of seeing your dumb concept sketches, Mr. Developer.

Solving the puzzles is a rewarding experience, but the game is not as finely tuned as a difficult physics game should be. Remember how bad jumping puzzles used to be in first-person shooter games? (Maybe they're still bad, I haven't played one in a long time.) Some of the jumps in this game will have you looking down to see exactly when your invisible feet leave the ledge. And while it's impressive what the cubes can do, their behavior is occasionally inconsistent. Finally, I can't quite explain how I solved a few of the rooms. I was just running and jumping around randomly and got through them. Either I stumbled onto the solution or benefited from a lucky glitch.

There isn't a concrete story, but the endgame objective to complete all the puzzles does bring you closer to a weird presence that's occasionally seen throughout the game. There is an abstract final cutscene that could mean something. It's not as fun as being harassed by a loquacious A.I., but it's neat enough.

The puzzles don't start to get interesting until maybe a quarter of the way into the game, so if the booga-booga physics annoy you, you might quit before seeing the best the game has to offer. Though it was often a frustrating experience, I'm glad I stuck with it and feel some pride in how I figured out the really inventive puzzle rooms (and some shame in how long it took me to do so).

[Nightwish]

The puzzles don't start to get interesting until maybe a quarter of the way into the game, so if the booga-booga physics annoy you, you might quit before seeing the best the game has to offer. Though it was often a frustrating experience, I'm glad I stuck with it and feel some pride in how I figured out the really inventive puzzle rooms (and some shame in how long it took me to do so).

The issue I have with the game is that once you're stuck, you're really stuck. Since it's non-linear, I didn't really know where to look for guidance without spoiling a few puzzles by the point I figured out what I wanted.
OTOH, I don't feel shame, I always knew my spatial CPU wasn't very good. I should have a look again one of these days, maybe I'll get a breakthrough.

[Nightwish]

The puzzles don't start to get interesting until maybe a quarter of the way into the game, so if the booga-booga physics annoy you, you might quit before seeing the best the game has to offer. Though it was often a frustrating experience, I'm glad I stuck with it and feel some pride in how I figured out the really inventive puzzle rooms (and some shame in how long it took me to do so).

The issue I have with the game is that once you're stuck, you're really stuck. Since it's non-linear, I didn't really know where to look for guidance without spoiling a few puzzles by the point I figured out what I wanted.
OTOH, I don't feel shame, I always knew my spatial CPU wasn't very good. I should have a look again one of these days, maybe I'll have a breakthrough.