Stunning architecture and mind-blowing puzzles concoct a moody and meditative puzzle game experience that truly blew me away. The puzzles themselves evoke non-euclidean architecture and M.C. Escher, where they literally fold in on themselves and are simply stunning to see in motion.
Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2020/01/30/now-playing-january-2020-edition/
Full Review: https://neoncloudff.wordpress.com/2020/01/30/now-playing-january-2020-edition/
This game is so beautiful. One of the most fun and creative puzzle games I've played.
muy guay y muy diver pero el final es super anticlimatico
It's so cool looking but I got so bored by the gameplay. It feels almost tacked on. Might've been better as an exploration or adventure game.
This isn't really a review, but I've been friends with the director William for a long time. We went to the same college in Chicago (though years apart) and a while after releasing Anodyne in 2013 he contacted me about playtesting an early version of MG, then called "Relativity". I think this was either the fall of 2013 or 2014... we lived in the same neighborhood. He's also of Taiwanese origin which is especially rare that we were both doing independent games.
Anyways, as it turns out, after moving elsewhere in Chicago, I ended up moving back to the same neighborhood as him a year or so later so we would meet up now and then and catch up about what our games were up to. It felt like for a long time I was just stuck on Even the Ocean, him on Manifold Garden... eventually ETO did come out in 2016, but it'd be a few more years till Manifold Garden came out. I remember meeting for coffee and hearing about his various negotiations, navigating the world of funding, building a team, etc. I remember we had breakfast at a diner when his friend Alan Hazelden (Draknek - a prolific puzzle game designer) visited.
It was through him that I heard about a game design teaching job at SAIC and taught part time at that a few years while making All Our Asias and Anodyne 2. The neighborhood we were in was a bit isolated from the (small) games scene in Chicago, so it felt like that neighborhood was our 'gamer island' of sorts...
Anyways, as time got on I would playtest and look at more complete versions of the game. Everyone got older (at some point William hit 30, I remember a birthday party). Like with my own games it was neat to see what were test spaces slowly become complete levels, or see levels moved around in the sequence of the game, or hear music and sound added for the first time.
Eventually I moved off to Japan as I released Anodyne 2, and I believe missed the launch celebration for MG! But it was nice to see it successfully launch with platform support. In later years during the pandemic I got to visit William's new office space, we also visited our alma mater and their new games program. It's been a while since I've been back but we keep in touch now and then and his studio seems to be doing well.
I don't know how much writing has been done on this, but it's a weird thing, being in a games scene for over 10 years... a lot of folks I knew early on - when we were all teenagers or early 20s - some dropped out of the scene, some are still releasing but not really on social media... people developed different styles, different life priorities and styles of making games. We see each other's games in different states of progress... always sort of subtly reflecting on our own game creation practice as we look at and unconsciously analyze and think about what the others are doing.
Anyways, as it turns out, after moving elsewhere in Chicago, I ended up moving back to the same neighborhood as him a year or so later so we would meet up now and then and catch up about what our games were up to. It felt like for a long time I was just stuck on Even the Ocean, him on Manifold Garden... eventually ETO did come out in 2016, but it'd be a few more years till Manifold Garden came out. I remember meeting for coffee and hearing about his various negotiations, navigating the world of funding, building a team, etc. I remember we had breakfast at a diner when his friend Alan Hazelden (Draknek - a prolific puzzle game designer) visited.
It was through him that I heard about a game design teaching job at SAIC and taught part time at that a few years while making All Our Asias and Anodyne 2. The neighborhood we were in was a bit isolated from the (small) games scene in Chicago, so it felt like that neighborhood was our 'gamer island' of sorts...
Anyways, as time got on I would playtest and look at more complete versions of the game. Everyone got older (at some point William hit 30, I remember a birthday party). Like with my own games it was neat to see what were test spaces slowly become complete levels, or see levels moved around in the sequence of the game, or hear music and sound added for the first time.
Eventually I moved off to Japan as I released Anodyne 2, and I believe missed the launch celebration for MG! But it was nice to see it successfully launch with platform support. In later years during the pandemic I got to visit William's new office space, we also visited our alma mater and their new games program. It's been a while since I've been back but we keep in touch now and then and his studio seems to be doing well.
I don't know how much writing has been done on this, but it's a weird thing, being in a games scene for over 10 years... a lot of folks I knew early on - when we were all teenagers or early 20s - some dropped out of the scene, some are still releasing but not really on social media... people developed different styles, different life priorities and styles of making games. We see each other's games in different states of progress... always sort of subtly reflecting on our own game creation practice as we look at and unconsciously analyze and think about what the others are doing.
so incredibly gorgeous and really fun to explore, the puzzles were so satisfying to solve. LOVE it.
it's got that Annihilation (2018) type beat which is big. Fun puzzles and true vibes.
obra de arte com puzzle
Cool first-person puzzler with nice visuals and ambience. The puzzle gameplay is fairly standard and logical, it’s not quite as clearly level-based as Portal or Talos but for the most part, finding the goal and pieces of each puzzle is not hard which is the approach I prefer with puzzle games. The quality is pretty good but I wouldn’t have minded some more difficult or satisfying puzzle designs, or just more in general. I had a great time but it only lasts a few hours.
The visuals are great, the style feels like an extension of what you see in Antichamber except instead of being confined to small corridors, the levels are massively open and infinitely repeating. This gives a great sense of scale but I’ll admit that with no real weight or a potential loss state, the game doesn’t really capitalise on this ambience. Portal 2 has a much smaller scale but the massive falls feel much more significant and immersive rather than just being a cool idea like in this game.
The story kind of matches the style in that it’s vague and without narrative. There are some abstract ideas but I don’t think it’s supposed to be very meaningful. Maybe I just missed the point. Anyway it’s still a good choice for puzzle fans but maybe a little overpriced at full price since there isn’t a huge amount of content.
The visuals are great, the style feels like an extension of what you see in Antichamber except instead of being confined to small corridors, the levels are massively open and infinitely repeating. This gives a great sense of scale but I’ll admit that with no real weight or a potential loss state, the game doesn’t really capitalise on this ambience. Portal 2 has a much smaller scale but the massive falls feel much more significant and immersive rather than just being a cool idea like in this game.
The story kind of matches the style in that it’s vague and without narrative. There are some abstract ideas but I don’t think it’s supposed to be very meaningful. Maybe I just missed the point. Anyway it’s still a good choice for puzzle fans but maybe a little overpriced at full price since there isn’t a huge amount of content.
A game where i got lost in the world with it's amazing visuals, infinitly repeated patterns of each level that you utilize in alot of puzzels, music and breathtaking scenery.
The visuals and music are great but the puzzles were just very easy that it turned more into a walking simulator. Play Antichamber if you want a similar experience but with actual puzzles
a truly gorgeous and calming game i absolutely will play it again
súperkúl!
Do you believe aesthetic can be narrative? Manifold Garden is so obsessed with its aesthetic that it forgets to use it in any interesting way aside from just looking cool. But holy shit it looks cool. I was hoping for an antichamber-style game and got a walking sim with minor puzzle elements instead, but did I mention the visuals were fantastic? If you want a 5 hour game walking through Piranesi/Escher-style architecture stretching into infinity, this is your game. And fractals. Lots of fractals at the end.
Fairly standard clever-clever 3D stuff... until I dropped one of the key boxes off the side of a skyscraper and had to dive after it in a thrilling recursive trust fall. The most visceral air control in any game.
You can't understand how beautiful it is until it lets you outside into the giant fractal playground. No jump, only fall. No word, only rotate.
You can't understand how beautiful it is until it lets you outside into the giant fractal playground. No jump, only fall. No word, only rotate.
Not the type of game I usually play but I thought it was really impressive and amazing. No real complaints. Some puzzles are psychotic though go fuck yourself.
Gorgeous first person puzzler. I enjoyed it, but felt as though some mechanics weren't fully explored by the end of the game.
this was fine but for some reason it reported that it was running at like 4000 fps lol
pretty and very interesting. some of the puzzles could have been harder. others were very hard and spanned multiple worlds, which was too obscure
an aesthetically rich game with okay puzzles. was never really compelled by its gameplay or progression so it wound up taking me nearly a year to finish, so
This game gave me a headache. I heartily recommend it.
They let you take the cubes out of the levels
What really sets the game apart aren't the puzzles but the atmosphere. The fractal based visuals and the atmospheric soundtrack make this one of the most unique puzzle games out there. The endless repetition isn't just for show either since most of the puzzles will require you to fall onto the next iteration of the same level. This might also be triggering for some people because even though most of it is only really happening on a 27 inch screen in front of me, I had goosebumps from my fear of heights almost throughout. Some trippy sequences and areas also gave me this weird fight-or-flight feeling and I was tense through a lot of it but not at all in a bad way. There's really nothing that can hurt you in the game though some of the visuals are meant to be somewhat unsettling. The dev really found an incredible theme here and executed it perfectly. The way the geometry just fades out into infinity makes for some thrilling sights almost every step of the way.
On the puzzle front, the game isn't particularly tough. You're mostly trying to navigate and find the puzzle or execute what you know you want to do more often than figure much of it out. You're mostly interacting with blocks and trying to get them into the right pads and other mechanics that I don't want to spoil. It's a fairly short game and I finished it in about 4.5 hours with minimal help at one point cause I forgot a mechanic but otherwise the most confused you'll be is when looking for what to do next.
I'd recommend this to anyone looking for an FPS puzzler a la Antichamber which this seems to use heavily as inspiration for the structure. The visuals and atmosphere alone are worth the price of admission.
On the puzzle front, the game isn't particularly tough. You're mostly trying to navigate and find the puzzle or execute what you know you want to do more often than figure much of it out. You're mostly interacting with blocks and trying to get them into the right pads and other mechanics that I don't want to spoil. It's a fairly short game and I finished it in about 4.5 hours with minimal help at one point cause I forgot a mechanic but otherwise the most confused you'll be is when looking for what to do next.
I'd recommend this to anyone looking for an FPS puzzler a la Antichamber which this seems to use heavily as inspiration for the structure. The visuals and atmosphere alone are worth the price of admission.
Manifold Garden is a fun puzzle game that is mainly carried by its aesthetics. While I did enjoy the puzzles, they were a bit too easy. The environment is beautiful though and the music really helps you lose yourself in this gorgeous world of pastel fractals. Overall I had a good time and that end sequence is especially mesmerizing
Manifold Garden is a fantastic game. The visuals are obviously striking from the pastel colour palette to the infinitely repeating fractal archictecture. This game is really a treat for the eyes.
The puzzles are pretty challenging with the difficult gradually ramping up as you play. With the changing the gravity navigating the different levels is a puzzle in itself. It's also really rewarding to utilise the gravity mechanic to make shortcuts for yourself since falling is faster than running.
However I feel like the final puzzles couldve been a bit harder.
The music really adds a lot of atmosphere and really complements the overall aesthetic.
Honestly I spent my last few moments in the game wanderings its levels and getting lost in its beautiful abyss.
The puzzles are pretty challenging with the difficult gradually ramping up as you play. With the changing the gravity navigating the different levels is a puzzle in itself. It's also really rewarding to utilise the gravity mechanic to make shortcuts for yourself since falling is faster than running.
However I feel like the final puzzles couldve been a bit harder.
The music really adds a lot of atmosphere and really complements the overall aesthetic.
Honestly I spent my last few moments in the game wanderings its levels and getting lost in its beautiful abyss.
A beautiful fractal puzzle game that has you exploring set pieces infinitely repeated upon themselves. Within these minimalist renderings you can explore by moving to any adjacent surface, find interactables, and try to figure out how to proceed to the next area - normally just by finding a switch, placing objects in set locations, or redirecting a flow of liquid to another location.
This game really blew me away with the sheer scale of its infinite spaces. It oozes atmosphere from its surreal liminal sandboxes, and the puzzles are just as fascinating as the solutions are devilish creating some mind blowing physics interactions that make use of the infinitely tessellating space.
While there is no real story to speak of the abstract goings on throughout each level are well worth the price of admission as you're treated to some wonderful visuals from start to finish, and for the avid puzzler every stage has an alternative solution which gives a great excuse to replay such a unique and interesting game.
High marks for creativity, a truly unique experience, and clever but simple mechanics that draw on the fractal world making you think in entirely new ways.
This game really blew me away with the sheer scale of its infinite spaces. It oozes atmosphere from its surreal liminal sandboxes, and the puzzles are just as fascinating as the solutions are devilish creating some mind blowing physics interactions that make use of the infinitely tessellating space.
While there is no real story to speak of the abstract goings on throughout each level are well worth the price of admission as you're treated to some wonderful visuals from start to finish, and for the avid puzzler every stage has an alternative solution which gives a great excuse to replay such a unique and interesting game.
High marks for creativity, a truly unique experience, and clever but simple mechanics that draw on the fractal world making you think in entirely new ways.
🔔 UMA ANÁLISE VALE MAIS DO QUE MIL IMAGENS 🔔
Disponível anteriormente na Apple Arcade algures por 2019 e recentemente lançado para a Nintendo Switch, Manifold Garden é um jogo centrado não só em quebra-cabeças mas também em viagens estranhas e únicas por um mundo sem fim. Quiçá não seja tão estranho assim não fosse o criador, William Chyr, licenciado em artes pela universidade de Chicago. Com uma banda sonora e direção artística únicas, Manifold Garden consegue ser em primeira instância uma obra de arte e depois então, um videojogo.
Assim sendo, compreende-se que não haja um enredo propriamente dito. Em filosofia é costume discutir que as obras de arte sofrem problemas de interpretação em dois polos: isolacionismo e contextualização. Não vou gastar um parágrafo nessa aventura, mas deixo assente que em Manifold Garden tudo está à mercê da nossa imaginação. Se realmente existe um porquê para tudo o que acontece, certamente estará na mente do senhor Chyr, pois nada naquele mundo artificial revela uma intenção de desenvolver um enredo ou uma linha narrativa.
Mas ainda assim, Manifold Garden é um videojogo e isso exige que se estabeleçam algumas regras. O início da aventura começa com uma série de quebra-cabeças cuja função é explicar como decorrem as cerca de seis horas de jogo e no fim de cada desafio, a mecânica principal fica esclarecida: utilizar a gravidade do mundo, alterar a nossa perspetiva e colocar cubos na cor correta. É estupidamente simples e divertido, mas também desonesto na sua dificuldade. Tudo é feito em torno desta mecânica e progressivamente, surgem novas ideias para apimentar a viagem. Chega a um ponto que é necessário pensar três, quatro ou até cinco passos à frente para executar e avançar até à próxima etapa, muito ao estilo do apreciadíssimo Portal. A dificuldade está lá, mas existe pouco sentimento tão recompensador como este.
Mas por muito interessantes ou desafiantes que sejam os quebra-cabeças, a verdadeira experiência de Manifold Garden encontra-se na direção artística e na banda sonora. Poucos são os jogos que atingem um patamar quase etéreo na sua execução, mas o mundo idealizado por William Chyr é longo, vasto e repleto de estruturas inicialmente muito cinzentas e minimalistas que se vão tornando mais coloridas e complexas. Tudo é grande e ambicioso neste jogo; tudo é deslumbrante mas ainda assim, consegue ser estranhamente calmo. A banda sonora é um complemento excelente e a sua composição merece ser apreciada, mesmo fora do jogo.
Contudo, um dos momentos mais impressionantes foi cair de uma plataforma acidentalmente. Ao contrário do esperado ecrã de Game Over, a descida é contínua até se cair em terra firme…várias vezes no mesmo sítio de onde saltei. A descida continuava e continuava, um ciclo vicioso sem fim em que vi inúmeras vezes o exterior da estrutura onde estava confinado. Muito frequentemente a solução para vários desafios passa por mudar a forma como se olha para a questão.
Ainda assim, por toda a liberdade encontrada tanto a nível de mecânicas como a nível de interpretação, é de salientar que existe uma falha óbvia na falta de um botão para saltar. São vários os desafios que se tornam desnecessariamente difíceis só porque a nossa personagem é incapaz de contornar a gravidade com o seu próprio corpo. Algo que também é transversal ao género, e talvez algo mais subjetivo, é o nível de dificuldade. Outros tantos quebra-cabeças incitam a famosa reação “é isto?” na sua conclusão. Apesar da experiência geral no seu todo ser agradável, com a vantagem adicional de se poder jogar em qualquer lado, Manifold Garden não aproveita outras funcionalidades da consola, sendo tudo muito simplista.
_______________ CONCLUSÃO ________________
Mais experiência do que jogo, Manifold Garden deslumbra pela suas componentes artísticas. Aqui a jogabilidade apresenta-se apenas como um complemento interativo, na mesma onda de jogos como Journey, apesar da execução ser muito inspirada em Portal. A banda sonora, por sua vez, é indispensável e tem de ser ouvida para a mestria ganhar vida.
Trata-se, no entanto, de uma conversão muito simples, com alguns puzzles irritantes, um tempo curtíssimo de vida e nenhuma razão para voltar a jogar, o que coloca o jogo uns pontos abaixo do esperado.
Pontos Positivos:
✅ Banda sonora
✅ Direção artística
✅ Sentimento de recompensa
Pontos Negativos:
❌ Tempo de jogo muito curto
❌ Nenhuma razão para voltar a jogar
❌ Alguns quebra-cabeças muito irritantes
______________ FICHA TÉCNICA ______________
◻️ ➡️ "Manifold Garden – Análise"
◻️ 🙋♂️ Read more of my reviews by clicking here
◻️ 🗂️ Metacritic’s page here and OpenCritic’s here
◻️ ✍️ in European Portuguese
◻️ 📝 on 09/09/2020
____________________ FIM _____________________
Disponível anteriormente na Apple Arcade algures por 2019 e recentemente lançado para a Nintendo Switch, Manifold Garden é um jogo centrado não só em quebra-cabeças mas também em viagens estranhas e únicas por um mundo sem fim. Quiçá não seja tão estranho assim não fosse o criador, William Chyr, licenciado em artes pela universidade de Chicago. Com uma banda sonora e direção artística únicas, Manifold Garden consegue ser em primeira instância uma obra de arte e depois então, um videojogo.
Assim sendo, compreende-se que não haja um enredo propriamente dito. Em filosofia é costume discutir que as obras de arte sofrem problemas de interpretação em dois polos: isolacionismo e contextualização. Não vou gastar um parágrafo nessa aventura, mas deixo assente que em Manifold Garden tudo está à mercê da nossa imaginação. Se realmente existe um porquê para tudo o que acontece, certamente estará na mente do senhor Chyr, pois nada naquele mundo artificial revela uma intenção de desenvolver um enredo ou uma linha narrativa.
Mas ainda assim, Manifold Garden é um videojogo e isso exige que se estabeleçam algumas regras. O início da aventura começa com uma série de quebra-cabeças cuja função é explicar como decorrem as cerca de seis horas de jogo e no fim de cada desafio, a mecânica principal fica esclarecida: utilizar a gravidade do mundo, alterar a nossa perspetiva e colocar cubos na cor correta. É estupidamente simples e divertido, mas também desonesto na sua dificuldade. Tudo é feito em torno desta mecânica e progressivamente, surgem novas ideias para apimentar a viagem. Chega a um ponto que é necessário pensar três, quatro ou até cinco passos à frente para executar e avançar até à próxima etapa, muito ao estilo do apreciadíssimo Portal. A dificuldade está lá, mas existe pouco sentimento tão recompensador como este.
Mas por muito interessantes ou desafiantes que sejam os quebra-cabeças, a verdadeira experiência de Manifold Garden encontra-se na direção artística e na banda sonora. Poucos são os jogos que atingem um patamar quase etéreo na sua execução, mas o mundo idealizado por William Chyr é longo, vasto e repleto de estruturas inicialmente muito cinzentas e minimalistas que se vão tornando mais coloridas e complexas. Tudo é grande e ambicioso neste jogo; tudo é deslumbrante mas ainda assim, consegue ser estranhamente calmo. A banda sonora é um complemento excelente e a sua composição merece ser apreciada, mesmo fora do jogo.
Contudo, um dos momentos mais impressionantes foi cair de uma plataforma acidentalmente. Ao contrário do esperado ecrã de Game Over, a descida é contínua até se cair em terra firme…várias vezes no mesmo sítio de onde saltei. A descida continuava e continuava, um ciclo vicioso sem fim em que vi inúmeras vezes o exterior da estrutura onde estava confinado. Muito frequentemente a solução para vários desafios passa por mudar a forma como se olha para a questão.
Ainda assim, por toda a liberdade encontrada tanto a nível de mecânicas como a nível de interpretação, é de salientar que existe uma falha óbvia na falta de um botão para saltar. São vários os desafios que se tornam desnecessariamente difíceis só porque a nossa personagem é incapaz de contornar a gravidade com o seu próprio corpo. Algo que também é transversal ao género, e talvez algo mais subjetivo, é o nível de dificuldade. Outros tantos quebra-cabeças incitam a famosa reação “é isto?” na sua conclusão. Apesar da experiência geral no seu todo ser agradável, com a vantagem adicional de se poder jogar em qualquer lado, Manifold Garden não aproveita outras funcionalidades da consola, sendo tudo muito simplista.
_______________ CONCLUSÃO ________________
Mais experiência do que jogo, Manifold Garden deslumbra pela suas componentes artísticas. Aqui a jogabilidade apresenta-se apenas como um complemento interativo, na mesma onda de jogos como Journey, apesar da execução ser muito inspirada em Portal. A banda sonora, por sua vez, é indispensável e tem de ser ouvida para a mestria ganhar vida.
Trata-se, no entanto, de uma conversão muito simples, com alguns puzzles irritantes, um tempo curtíssimo de vida e nenhuma razão para voltar a jogar, o que coloca o jogo uns pontos abaixo do esperado.
Pontos Positivos:
✅ Banda sonora
✅ Direção artística
✅ Sentimento de recompensa
Pontos Negativos:
❌ Tempo de jogo muito curto
❌ Nenhuma razão para voltar a jogar
❌ Alguns quebra-cabeças muito irritantes
______________ FICHA TÉCNICA ______________
◻️ ➡️ "Manifold Garden – Análise"
◻️ 🙋♂️ Read more of my reviews by clicking here
◻️ 🗂️ Metacritic’s page here and OpenCritic’s here
◻️ ✍️ in European Portuguese
◻️ 📝 on 09/09/2020
____________________ FIM _____________________
Ça commence par être un petit FPS puzzle qui paye pas de mine, et ça se transforme en un peu plus que ça. Ambiance très calme et reposante, et au final c'est plutôt accessible si on se gratte un peu la tête. J'ai bien aimé.
Overall a lovely game. I ended up shelving it for a while because I got sucked into other games/life, but it was fairly simple to jump (or fall, lol) back into the game. Ended up only needing to go a little bit further to complete it, so here we are.
Based off the short final play session and what I remember from earlier times, there was only ever one puzzle/room that I found frustrating, but that was due to me missing a rather simple visual element when all's said and done.
If you're looking for an engaging or mentally challenging puzzler, I don't think that's the goal here. The goal of every puzzle is the broadly the same, there's only 5 "puzzle elements" total to play with and build puzzles around. I would consider Portal as a puzzle game to have 6 or 7 (portals, turrets, energy balls, movement, moving platforms, and timing/target constraint). So if you're a puzzle fiend you'll probably not find the gameplay very engaging.
But, if what you want is a very pretty set of 3D art to poke around in and a cool technical trick to admire, Manifold Garden does that pretty gosh darn well. The sound design is just wonderful, really letting the sound of air rushing past you as you fall overwhelm everything else, and the dull resounding "thump!" as things fall and impact totally sell the infinite fractal space, since there's no end for sound to stop at. The visuals are gorgeous and totally worth it as essentially a playable art book alone, but the puzzle aspect is really nice and relaxing.
There is a bit of a flashing lights problem at the end, be ready to alt+tab out in case you have issues with that.
If you come into this game expecting a nice pleasant time with beautiful sounds and rich views, you'll get exactly that. If you want the best puzzle game mechanically, you might want to look elsewhere and come back to this when you need a brain-break.
Based off the short final play session and what I remember from earlier times, there was only ever one puzzle/room that I found frustrating, but that was due to me missing a rather simple visual element when all's said and done.
If you're looking for an engaging or mentally challenging puzzler, I don't think that's the goal here. The goal of every puzzle is the broadly the same, there's only 5 "puzzle elements" total to play with and build puzzles around. I would consider Portal as a puzzle game to have 6 or 7 (portals, turrets, energy balls, movement, moving platforms, and timing/target constraint). So if you're a puzzle fiend you'll probably not find the gameplay very engaging.
But, if what you want is a very pretty set of 3D art to poke around in and a cool technical trick to admire, Manifold Garden does that pretty gosh darn well. The sound design is just wonderful, really letting the sound of air rushing past you as you fall overwhelm everything else, and the dull resounding "thump!" as things fall and impact totally sell the infinite fractal space, since there's no end for sound to stop at. The visuals are gorgeous and totally worth it as essentially a playable art book alone, but the puzzle aspect is really nice and relaxing.
There is a bit of a flashing lights problem at the end, be ready to alt+tab out in case you have issues with that.
If you come into this game expecting a nice pleasant time with beautiful sounds and rich views, you'll get exactly that. If you want the best puzzle game mechanically, you might want to look elsewhere and come back to this when you need a brain-break.
Even though I totally recognise that Manifold Garden is a work of art, it just isn't satisfying as a game for me. If you're into long journeys with the occasional puzzle challenge, this is probably your cup of tea. I just got incredibly bored after the third Godcube, because no new mechanics were ever introduced anymore. The puzzles all started to look like -> How can I get cube from point A to point B? Literally the only interesting puzzle mechanically that wasn't a chore to complete was found in the secret route. And OH MY GOD the secret route. It is literally IMPOSSIBLE to find the entire secret route on your own. Hats off to the person who actually found this out, it must have taken them at least 500 hours to do so. Try finding a hidden door in a massive place that is supposed to loop around, where everything looks the same...I do not get the fun in that, sorry...