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Hugh Likes Video Games: Superliminal

March 1, 2024

hughjodonnell Hugh Likes Video Games, Review , , , , Leave a comment

Superliminal

Developed by Pillow Castle

Played on PC via Xbox Game Pass

The Skinny:  A delightful if short puzzle game that puts your spacial reasoning and perspective to the test!

Framed as a session of lucid dreaming therapy, 2019’s Superliminal from developer Pillow Castle is a surprising and delightful little gem of a first person puzzle game. The game is set from a first person perspective, much like Valve’s smash hit Portal, and players must navigate puzzle rooms and solve perspective challenges in order to progress to each level’s exit. The primary mechanic revolves around perspective and object manipulation. Players can pick up objects and use the surroundings and changes in perspective to manipulate them by changing their size or shape. For example, players can pick up a block from a table, and by placing it correctly in the environment, change its size. This size change is neat, but can be a bit tricky to correctly implement. I found myself dancing with objects in order to get them to be the right size, often having them shrink on my with a careless push of the mouse.


Being set in a sort of a mad science experiment turned strip mall therapy office, the game wears its Portal inspiration on its sleeve, with a snarky AI, enigmatic voice messages from the technology’s developer, and ominous whiteboard messages. The writing is never quite as sharp or as funny as Portal, but it is clever, and it doesn’t get quite as cynical either. Objects and locations are fun and surprising, and the puzzles were tricky without being too frustrating.


Clocking in at just a couple of hours, Superliminal doesn’t really have too much meat on its bones beyond the couple hours of single-player campaign. But what it does provide is fun and engaging. It is the perfect game to while away a winter afternoon with a mug of something warm nearby.
Superliminal is available as a download for PC, Xbox, Playstation network, and Nintendo Switch.

Hugh Likes Video Games: Unpacking

April 15, 2022

hughjodonnell Hugh Likes Video Games, Review , , , , , Leave a comment

Unpacking
Developed by Witchbeam
Published by Humble Games
Played on PC as a part of Xbox Game Pass

The Skinny – A relaxing game about stressful life events.

Unpacking is a relaxing, low-stress pixel art game about a stressful real-world activity: Moving. Each level consists of a number of boxes to unpack in increasingly large spaces. You start in a child’s bedroom and eventually have to unpack a whole house’s worth of possessions. Almost Tetris-like, the challenge is in finding the right place for every object, and making them fit in a limited space.Each object is a detailed isometric pixel sprite, which lends the game a bright and charming air. But the sound design is where the game really shines. There are unique, realistic sound effects for every individual item in the game. Placing a mug on a counter and opening a drawer sounds incredible in high-def. Which feels odd to say in a game review, but here we are. Sure, you don’t punch aliens or soar through the air on an airship, but did you hear the way that towel sounds when you fold it and put it on a shelf? The sound effect for when you fold up an empty cardboard box is the best dopamine hit I’ve gotten in a while from a game.I guess it’s a sign that I’m growing up. Which is fitting, as this is very much a game about transitioning through life. You follow a woman through multiple moves, from her first bedroom to her first college dorm, and beyond. Each level is framed as a page in a photo album, and completing the level gives you a line of text from the unnamed character as she thinks about that day.The objects are all suitably varied based on the rooms, and while it is a challenge to make them all fit, there isn’t really a score or a timer to beat. Certain combinations or placement of objects reward you with stickers which double as achievements, but there’s not much else other than that. There are some lovely hints of storytelling through the objects themselves, though. We get hints of who this person is, and what their life is like what her hobbies are, and how her life changes from move to move over the years. Crayons give way to fancy pens and to a drawing tablet as she grows up and pursues an art career. A cane and a wrist brace appear among the objects as time goes by. A photograph of two people has a pin placed through the one figure’s face following a breakup.Unpacking is a delightful and relaxing puzzle experience. It is available for PC and major consoles.