Developer: Airtight Games
Publisher: Square Enix
Rrp: £6.99 (£7.97 to include all DLC) (Steam), £6.99 (Square Enix Store)
Released: 21st June 2012
Available on Steam and the Square Enix Store
Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard
You’ve been forced to visit your Uncle by your Mother. You get dropped off and she speeds away as you enter the house, normally he greets you at the door with a new fabulous invention, but this time he’s not there! The PA crackles to life and through it your Uncle reveals that somethings happened to him and now he’s stuck… somewhere. Guess its up to you to get him out, huh?
Quantum Conundrum is a FPP (First Person Puzzler), where you play a young boy visiting his Uncle who happens to be an inventor. You have to work your way through the mansion past all the strange contraptions using the only tool at your disposal, a glove that allows you to switch what dimension you’re in.
The game is narrated by John De Lancie (or Q from the Star Trek series). He will talk to you throughout the game over the intercom occasionally reacting to the things you do, look at or find. He’s kind of the GlaDOS of this game, although he’s not trying to kill you and his jabs at you are less… harsh, or more so in their own way.
The various dimensions you’ll be playing with are light (known as fluffy in the game), heavy, slow motion and reversed gravity.
When you change dimension the world around you changes too, pictures on the wall and the general colouring of the environment change to suit that dimension.
Since you’re playing a child everything seems bigger and higher up than you, this adds to the sense of challenge to the title because things you’d normally just vault over take more thought. This theme of being a child is continued into the death screens (for indeed you can die). Each time you die the game gives you a “Things you will never do” card. Thankfully death isn’t too punishing setting you back to the last checkpoint, which are quite liberally scattered and respawning only takes a few seconds.
Click the left button to interact with, pick up or put down an object and right mouse button to throw an object. The [1], [3], [Q] and [E] buttons allow you to switch through dimensions. Which you’ll need to do in order to solve the many puzzles this game has to offer.
I don’t normally mention this kind of thing but in this case it has annoyed me. There’s no advanced option in the graphic settings that means that if, for whatever reason, you wanted to lower the graphical settings of this game (or raise them perhaps) you couldn’t. The best you can do is take off the bloom effects and motion blur.
As we all know its become something of a staple within games to include collectibles, well there are two types of collectible in this game. The first (and most prevalent) are these little robot doll things, noise makers the game calls them. They serve no purpose as far as I can tell apart from being collectible. The second are blueprints which allow you to access a kind of challenge area, I’ll be honest here, I never figured this room out.
Unfortunately, even though the game was left open for a sequel, the developers have since closed their doors, although a Quantum Conundrum 2 listing has been spotted within Steams listing… along with other more unlikely titles so make of that what you will.
Those that enjoyed the likes of Portal will probably enjoy this title, sadly those same comparisons are also its weakness as it lacks the same level of polish. Still I can say its definitely worth the money they ask, and there is quite a bit of replayabilty in trying to beat your previous time in the speed running mode.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Portal Series
Magrunner: The Dark Pulse
The Talos Principle
