While I was able to make it through most of the levels without too much trouble, two were so bizarre, esoteric, and so utterly unrelated to the kind of perspective-based construction that unites the rest of the experience that I found myself forced to go to the internet for help - something a player really shouldn’t have to do. The lack of a hint system is also a problem. The gameplay is so completely disconnected from traditional narrative that it would be an incredible feat to have any kind of meaningful story built around it, but the devs don’t do more than the bare minimum in their attempt. However, there are just a few small problems with Superliminal, but they are worth mentioning.įor starters, the story is nothing special - it’s just standard ‘british guy blabbers medical and business nonsense’ to build the world out a little, but none of it lands. The whole world is a set built to confound and delight players, and for the most part it succeeds. Used to shrinking doors to pass through? What if clicking on the door creates a copy instead of picking it up? Playing S uperliminal is like navigating rapids of constant innovation, and nothing can be taken for granted - at any moment one mechanic can stop working and be suddenly replaced by something entirely new and unexpected. One moment the player will be towering over a model, the next they’ll be sliding through a keyhole to climb into it. There are monochrome worlds where pits and platforms can be almost anywhere, pitch-black rooms that force the player to navigate using shadows, and portals that cause extreme size changes. Each new level of the dream introduces ever-more-bizarre variations on the theme. That’s just the start of Superliminal’s tricks, however. In the two hours I spent with Superliminal, this effect never stopped baffling and amazing me. Conversely, if the player grabs the moon out of the sky and holds it up to a wall just a foot away from their face, it will be the size of a dime when they let it go. When they let it go, it becomes a 3D object again, but its size is determined by where the 2D object was hovering when it was released.įor example, if the player picks up a normal can of soda and holds it up and close to the camera so that it blocks the view of a hallway, when they release it, it’s suddenly a giant soda can that is physically blocking the hall. Players start with one mechanic - any item they pick up in its 3D world immediately transforms into a 2D item. Things start simple enough, although “simple” isn’t a word I’m entirely comfortable associating with this game. The machine in charge of their slumber goes haywire, and they’re forced to explore a series of increasingly surreal worlds full of perspective-based platforming puzzles. Players control an unnamed protagonist taking part in a dream study. Perhaps the most innovative first-person puzzle game since Portal, Superliminal is less narratively ambitious than that classic, but makes up for it with truly outrageous flights of dream logic fancy. In fact, it would be a little on the insufferable side if it weren’t for how good it feels to solve its puzzles… As every new mechanic appeared, I could almost hear the developers clapping one another on the back for how clever it all was. Over the course of a couple of hours, minds are bent, every rule of logic and common sense is broken, and perspective will never again seem like a constant. LOW That EXIT sign isn’t a good enough clue.Īs much a head trip as it is a puzzle game, Superliminal exists only to show off how clever its developers are. HIGH The bouncy house/pool level is a classic.
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