Quantum Conundrum: Dimension-shifting Puzzle goodness.

Rorus Raz

So there's this lady that works on a video game. You might remember it, as it is called


Oh, not ringing any bells? Well, this lady got hired by a company because the game was just so interesting. That company?


They had her work on a new game using choice bits of the old one. Gee, what did they call it? I forget...


Oh that's right! Portal! Boy, it sure was fun, wasn't it? Well, get this: she actually left Valve. Yeah, she totally just up and left Valve to make her own games. Rumor has it that she walked away in slow motion while explosions went off behind her. Sunglasses may or may not have been used.

She now works for Airtight Games, known for the Dark Void games. Her new game idea?



You play as a boy looking for his uncle. He's an inventor, and you'll use his dimension-shifting device to navigate the game. Object too heavy? Try the light fluffy dimension. Things going too fast? Chill in the slow dimension. Juggle dimensions and wrack your brain through a variety of puzzles.

DLC is already on the way, and the game looks pretty awesome. The base game is $14.99 on Steam, or 19.99 for the Season Pass which gets you all future DLC alongside the soundtrack.

Gameplay Trailer


E3 Trailer


Hey, Giant Bomb did a Quick Look!

DaemonSadi

Hmm.. I was unawares this was actually out... Any one here playing so far?

Firmus_Piett

Well I have it in my library, but it still says not yet released for me. This makes me sad.

Gandalf_the_Crazed

I'm waiting for the XBLA release, much as it pains me.

Skull2185

Gandalf_the_Crazed wrote: »

I'm waiting for the XBLA release, much as it pains me.

Me too. Any solid release info outside of "soon" yet?

Rorus Raz

Just beat it. It's around 4-5 hours of gameplay. Really fun, albeit it has a bit of a disappointing finale.

mntorankusu

I'm really enjoying the titles of the books lying around everywhere.

Firmus_Piett

Just downloaded it now, gonna put some time into before I have breakfast I guess.

Krathoon

Glad they went steam first. PC usually gets the delay.

Direwolf

Steam went a bit buggy on me so wasn't able to fit in any time after installing before I headed to work. Definitely plan to get a few hours in tomorrow!

UnderHero5

Well, totally disappointed that this is a terrible console port. Had it preordered, got home from work and installed it. Loaded it up... wait... doesn't support 1600x900 res? Pretty common res for laptops. Okay then... load it up at a lower, non-native res. Hmm, tons of motion blur and kind of running a little slow. I'll just shut off some post-processing, since I don't like motion blur anyway. Back to the options!

Oh wait... I was already in the video options to change me res before. Lets see here... Resolution... Brightness... Subtitles... THAT'S IT. THOSE ARE THE VIDEO OPTIONS.

I shut the game off, went right to Steams support page and submitted a ticket for a refund. I doubt I will get it, but after using Steam since the beta, this is the first game I have ever done that with.

I was totally excited for this game and pre-ordered it for myself and gifted it to my wife's account as well. I do not want to support such a lazy, insulting port, though. And I am pretty disappointed that I saw no mention of this in any of the reviews I read. You would at least expect more resolution options. Kind of a standard thing.

I'm sure the game is fun. The only way I will know is if they deny my refund (I will drop the res down to where it runs acceptably and play through it so I didn't waste my money). After 10 years of using Steam, it took this game to make me start thinking twice about pre-ordering. I normally do my research, but coming from Kim Swift, I guess I assumed the game would have freaking video options and be made for PC, and not a turd of a console port.

And I have nothing against consoles. I love my consoles. But when I buy a PC game, I want it built for my PC... otherwise I'd just buy it on my consoles.

Based on ZERO play time, I have to say stay away from the PC version if you're the kind of PC player who liked PC games and abhors bad console ports. At least I was able to rebind keys, I'll give it that, I guess.

mntorankusu

It's interesting because the game actually runs great (for me). I'm getting 60fps at 1920x1080 and I can't get near that on most games. It doesn't seem crappy in the sense of being poorly optimized or anything. Just no dang options.

The motion blur is awfully strong, too. I like it that way, but considering how strong it is it's kind of crazy that there's no option to turn it off.

TychoCelchuuu

UnderHero5 wrote: »

I'm sure the game is fun. The only way I will know is if they deny my refund (I will drop the res down to where it runs acceptably and play through it so I didn't waste my money). After 10 years of using Steam, it took this game to make me start thinking twice about pre-ordering. I normally do my research, but coming from Kim Swift, I guess I assumed the game would have freaking video options and be made for PC, and not a turd of a console port.

Coming from Kim Swift and the team that brought you Dark Void. And nothing else. A studio with one shitty game to its name. Kim Swift would have to be John Carmack to turn an entire studio around, I would think.

UnbreakableVow

Waiting patiently for the 360 version

Darth Nathan

I was quite interested in this game until I watched the Giant Bomb quicklook and...I dunno. It looks like a low-rent version of Portal, basically. Complete with funny narrator guy in the test chambers and lasers and physics and stuff.

Interested to hear other people's thoughts on whether it's actually fun in practice.

madnessnewb

Looks quite good to me. Wishlisted ;D

mntorankusu

Darth Nathan wrote: »

I was quite interested in this game until I watched the Giant Bomb quicklook and...I dunno. It looks like a low-rent version of Portal, basically. Complete with funny narrator guy in the test chambers and lasers and physics and stuff.

Interested to hear other people's thoughts on whether it's actually fun in practice.

It's excellent. It's not a low-rent version of Portal, it's a game in the same genre designed by the same person.

UnbreakableVow

Hopefully the narrator in this is better than GlaDOS

Wyvern

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Coming from Kim Swift and the team that brought you Dark Void. And nothing else. A studio with one shitty game to its name. Kim Swift would have to be John Carmack to turn an entire studio around, I would think.

This comparison left me mentally paralyzed for a few very confusing seconds until I realized that I had gotten my Johns mixed up again.

Firmus_Piett

Oh man, just realised that the paintings change when you switch dimensions. I wonder how many of those I missed.

TPSou

I've only played this for half an hour or so (got gifted it last night by a class act) and so far I really like it. The display options are a bit of a nightmare. Moreso than the lack of seperate settings, the fact you have to cycle through the resolutions with it loading each one as you go past is infuriating. I play on an LED TV that is cloned with a monitor, due to this I play everything at 720p because it looks fine on both (monitor can't do 1080p) and the game defaulted to 1080x 1024 so I had to go to display, click left arrow (it loads at 1280xsomething crazy) then click the left arrow again to get it to 720p, that would be a major pain in the ass if you had a more unusual set up.

As a game though I really like it so far. The puzzles are definitely more intricate than Portal and feel very different. The art style reminds me more of the 'Alice' games than anything, lots of odd perspective and colour schemes. I'll stick a proper review up once I'm finished but it's a solid game, and as many reviews/previews have said, it's just nice to have something different. I've got a LOT of FPS, RTS, Turn based Strategy (TBS?), driving games, RPGs etc; it's nice to play a well-made and thoughtful puzzle game with a story.

Firmus_Piett wrote: »

Oh man, just realised that the paintings change when you switch dimensions. I wonder how many of those I missed.

I didn't notice this either, do the books change too?

Krathoon

Wyvern wrote: »

TychoCelchuuu wrote: »

Coming from Kim Swift and the team that brought you Dark Void. And nothing else. A studio with one shitty game to its name. Kim Swift would have to be John Carmack to turn an entire studio around, I would think.

This comparison left me mentally paralyzed for a few very confusing seconds until I realized that I had gotten my Johns mixed up again.

Carmack is a programmer, not a designer. This one feels very Swiftian. It feels similar to Portal and that is a good thing. If they can make a few more games in this style, it will put the studio on the map. Dark Void was really a loose Crimson Skies sequel and was actually not that shitty. It just was not popular. I blame Capcom's poor advertising. I remember seeing a lone kiosk with it at PAX and being baffled as to why no one was caring.

Local H Jay

oh man, it's out on PC already? that was fast.

i got to try the 360 version when i was at pax east, i like the mechanics a lot and i'm pumped to get my hands on it. from the sound of it i might be better off waiting for the console version? i don't mind waiting if that one will run smoother

Skull2185

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Hopefully the narrator in this is better than GlaDOS

Man, UV... sometimes I just... I dunno

I wonder about you. Like, are you even human?

Edit: An now I realize that you haven't actually stated that you didn't like GlaDOS or Portal. I'm still wary though!

Morninglord

Skull2185 wrote: »

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Hopefully the narrator in this is better than GlaDOS

Man, UV... sometimes I just... I dunno

I wonder about you. Like, are you even human?

Edit: An now I realize that you haven't actually stated that you didn't like GlaDOS or Portal. I'm still wary though!

His unbreakable vow is to never answer that question in a manner that lets you know for sure.

I'm just messing though. He has different opinions, personalities can be different, people can be set up different ways, etc etc. I can see a world view where you don't like GlaDOS.

I don't share that world view, but that's a different and frankly irrelevant matter.

Skull2185

Morninglord wrote: »

Skull2185 wrote: »

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

Hopefully the narrator in this is better than GlaDOS

Man, UV... sometimes I just... I dunno

I wonder about you. Like, are you even human?

Edit: An now I realize that you haven't actually stated that you didn't like GlaDOS or Portal. I'm still wary though!

His unbreakable vow is to never answer that question in a manner that lets you know for sure.

I'm just messing though. He has different awful opinions, personalities can be different, people can be set up different ways, etc etc. I can see a world view where you don't like GlaDOS.

I don't share that world view, but that's a different and frankly irrelevant matter.

I was just kiddin' as well.


Anyhoo, this is going to be an XBLA title, yes? Seems like it should've been a SoA title. Unless its going to release on XBLA before the SoA promotion begins? Yes?

Someone say yes.

Local H Jay

looks like the console version is hitting July 11th

Skull2185

Hrmm. Just a little over two weeks. I can handle that wait I suppose.

Mr_Grinch

It scares me when I agree with UV. This isn't one of those times though, I loved GlaDOS. Anyway, I didn't realise this game was out, I saw the trailer from E3 and I thought it looked awesome, i'll definitely be picking it up come pay day (next weekend, woo!). Not too bothered about the lack of options, other than resolution I usually just stick with whatever games decide for me anyway. I can see how it's annoying though. No .ini's to tinker with like The Witcher 2?

::edit:: Mentioning Kim Swift would have to be John Carmack to turn things around made me giggle, didn't RAGE lack video options except for resolution?

815165

Only played an hour so far but I really like this.

Firmus_Piett

TPSou wrote: »

Firmus_Piett wrote: »

Oh man, just realised that the paintings change when you switch dimensions. I wonder how many of those I missed.

I didn't notice this either, do the books change too?

Not from what I can see. I've only gotten the second dimension thus far, so I may be wrong.

Seruko

it's a fine game, but it is definitely missing valve level of polish, play-testing and iterative design.

Klyka

game is fun and the narrator is motherfucking John De Lancie aka Q from Star Trek.

Rorus Raz

The game has the most brutal death screens I've seen. Just, really dark humor, and not what I expected after reading the PAR article about this being a family game.

UnbreakableVow

Local H Jay wrote: »

looks like the console version is hitting July 11th

The week before Summer of Arcade

Goddammit MS I am already flat fucking broke

Undead Scottsman

Okay, I just finished this. It was alright, but there were a few parts where getting the timing down was annoying.

BTW, in regards to this comic:

Which puzzle is "that" puzzle? I've done everything, with the possible expection of

Spoiler:

The room you get the battery blueprints for. I found a little dude (the one I was missing) but I explored the entire area and didn't find anything else, or even a puzzle to solve. Did I just miss something?

and I'm not sure which puzzle they're talking about. The two I'm guessing are

Spoiler:

The one close to the end of the game where you had to cross that huge chasm after getting past the wall of laser beams, and all you have is two safes. This one wasn't that hard to figure out IMO, but it was just hard to execute. Then again, I'm not sure I did it correctly.

Spoiler:

I basically floated both safes above the beams, turned fuzzy, grabbed and threw the second safe towards the exit and then quickly time-slowed so I could jump on the safe. I don't see another way of doing it, but it didn't feel like the right way.

The other is earlier in the game, towards the end of the second area when you only had the time slow power and had to cross two tables, which required you to think about the time slow power in a way you didn't before, and I don't remember doing any part after.

Spoiler:

You have to jump on one table, jump towards the next which is too high to reach, and turn off time slow mid-jump so it drops faster and you can land on the second table.

Big Classy

They're probably not talking about any particular puzzle. But then I don't have the game so what do I know.

anoffday

So after watching the trailers I'm even more confused. The "gameplay" trailer was the worst gameplay trailer I've ever seen with like 2 seconds of what I think was gameplay? And the second trailer seemed to just show the same scene over and over with a safe turning into a pillow? What do you do in this game?

Krathoon

Big Isy wrote: »

They're probably not talking about any particular puzzle. But then I don't have the game so what do I know.

Yes. I think they are just trying to encapsulate the feeling you get from these kinds of games.

warban

Klyka wrote: »

game is fun and the narrator is motherfucking John De Lancie aka Q from Star Trek.

Which also means MLP Discord.

The game is ok, I'm enjoying it. But not sure if I'm enjoying it enough to finish it.

anoffday wrote: »

So after watching the trailers I'm even more confused. The "gameplay" trailer was the worst gameplay trailer I've ever seen with like 2 seconds of what I think was gameplay? And the second trailer seemed to just show the same scene over and over with a safe turning into a pillow? What do you do in this game?

You pick up objects with different weights. Each Area you are given access to up to 4 gravity manipulations abilities. Depending on the puzzle you are limited.

Effects are:

Light. Everything can be carried and everything is destroyed by lasers. Effected by wind. You throw stuff then quickly switch to other modes to gain the desired effect.
Heavy. Cardboard boxes can activate switches. Boxes cannot be destroyed by red lazes. Break glass. Cannot pick anything up.
Slow Motion. Throw objects thought the air, move to another location to time something that needs to be done before the object reaches its destination.

And I think there is another Anti gravity one which I'm not up to.

There are a few other quirks. But I really feel this game was aimed towards a much younger audience with some of the dialogue that is in this game.

There also seems to be a really limited art set. I get the feeling you have seen 95% of all props within the first 30 mins of play. Kind of gives it a quirky feel. I liked it. But I feel the game is going to be quickly forgotten.

PMAvers

Eff it, I'll say it:

I think I actually like the puzzling action in QC over Portal.

Heresy, I know, but some of this stuff can actually be tricky. Especially once you get into the Red Wing.