Creaks is a... spins wheel [puzzle-platformer] with... spins wheel [stealth] elements where you play as a... [forced choice: normal white guy] that... spins wheel [falls into a cave] and meets... spins wheel [bird people] under threat of a... spins wheel [cat golem].

For a lack of a more descriptive term, the game lacks oomph. The puzzles are composed of simple mechanics in obsessively compact areas that practically force the solution to occur through mere tinkering. The tween-novel cover look is quite ugly and entirely lacks visual diversity or an identity outside of the striking furniture monsters. Our impossibly meek white guy protagonist is always in the right place at the right time, destroying any sense of narrative tension with the crumbling tower and the uninteresting bird folks. And, of course, he saves everyone and goes back to his normal life. Above all, though, the game glides past the player, with almost no sense of progression until you suddenly reach the finale.

I get why it exists, though. Creaks is an admirable attempt by Amanita Design to diversify their output by incorporating a third director, the debuting Radim Jurda, alongside the usual rotating leadership of Dvorsky and Plachy. Perhaps they realized that adventure games are even deader now than they were in 2010, perhaps they are trying to extend opportunity to a designer they see potential in, but the fact remains that Creaks' conventionality is, ironically, the black sheep of a norm-breaking studio.

Um ótimo jogo de puzzle da grande Amanita Design e bem diferente dos outros da mesma.

A gameplay, como falei no subtítulo da review, é de um jogo de puzzle, mas ao invés de um point and click igual aos outros jogos do estúdio como Machinarium, Botanicula e a trilogia Samorost, é meio como um Puzzle-Platformer, onde você manipula objetos inanimados e animados (literalmente) para desbloquear a passagem para progredir no resto do jogo, geralmente tendo que atrair um bicho pra um lugar e acender uma lâmpada que faz o inimigo virar um objeto inanimado e assim progredir pelo jogo, e o jogo introduz uma decente quantidade de mecânicas para deixar os puzzles mais desafiadores mais pra frente, como fantasmas que andam para onde você está andando, lâmpada que pode ser ligada ou desligada sem uma alavanca, e entre outras coisas, e alguns puzzles são bem criativos até, como por exemplo um puzzle onde você tem que fazer o fantasma verde e o rosa se encontrarem cara a cara, mas pra isso precisa ativar ou desativar objetos para eles progredirem pelo caminho. Além disso tem pinturas secretas que você encontra pelo jogo, alguns são basicamente teatrinhos, mas outros são minigames também, e são passatempos divertidinhos até.

A trilha sonora é bem atmosférica, talvez até demais, e a trilha sonora ainda é legal, e algumas músicas são genuinamente muito boas como Attic e Three Islands. Os visuais são ótimos, apesar de eu não achar eles tão lindos quanto os dos outros jogos do estúdio como Machinarium, mas pelo menos eu posso perdoar já que o jogo teve um foco maior na gameplay que os outros.

A história é intrigante até, sendo baseado em uma pessoa normal descobrindo que há uma mansão enorme atrás da parede da casa dele, enquanto isso esta mesma mansão está caindo aos pedaços. Enfim, é muito legal as interações entre os personagens, especialmente entre o protagonista e a mecânica, mesmo que os personagens não falem nada.

No fim do dia, um ótimo jogo da Amanita Design bem distinto dos outros da desenvolvedora, e que por si só também é um ótimo jogo de puzzle no mesmo patamar que os jogos do resto da Amanita Design.

8/10

English | Español

An excellent puzzle game with a visual design only at the height of Amanita Design that keeps reinventing itself throughout the game. Its puzzles are suitable, challenging enough so that you don't feel silly and affordable enough.

Un excelente juego de puzles con un diseño visual solo a la altura de Amanita Design que no deja de reinventarse durante toda la partida. Sus puzles son idoneos, lo suficientemente desafiantes como para que no te sientas tonto y lo suficientemente asequibles.

A fun puzzle game that never lingers too long on a single gimmick. Creaks struck the right balance of having satisfying puzzles that never frustrated me too much.

Really nice art too. But that's to be expected from the Machinarium developer.

Obtained Platinum trophy

Creaks was a 2D platform adventure brimming with imagination. Its puzzles were satisfying—transitioning from screen to screen, all while outsmarting pesky furniture that kept coming to life. It was a prime example that dialogue isn’t required to tell a story, the environment and characters charming in their own way. The most striking thing was its beautiful hand-painted visuals that depicted a crumbling mansion in a subterranean world.

There wasn't a great deal of variety as most puzzles involved manipulating light in some way, but I liked it and found it relaxing for the most part, outside of the moments where the trial and error puzzle solving got frustrating.

Sights & Sounds
- The hand drawn + watercolor visuals are very charming. It's a great looking game
- The music is alright. While not bad, it certainly isn't all that memorable
- Counter to that is the sound design, which was actually quite good. The ominous titular creaking of the giant crumbling edifice you're exploring, the thunderous stomping of the creature that's stalking you, and even the subtle sounds of footsteps and light switches all contribute well to the game's gloomy tones

Story & Vibes
- It's not all doom and gloom, though. Creaks does a good job of breaking the tension with occasional doses of humor. There's nothing laugh-out-loud funny going on, but the occasional chuckle is appreciated
- There's not much of a story. You're just a guy living in a small apartment who climbs through a hole in the wall to discover a strange world full of monsters and puzzles. So basically Silent Hill 4
- That isn't to say that Creaks lacks a narrative. You are trying to help the residents of the large building defend against the giant who keeps bashing up their house, but the whole story unfolds passively as you progress

Playability & Replayability
- The puzzles in Creaks are pretty good and just difficult enough during the later stages to be satisfying. Just take your time, pay attention to the environment, and don't be afraid to experiment
- In some of the longer puzzles where it's possible to die, the game does a good job of providing checkpoints. It was a nice little quality-of-life touch
- Most of the puzzles revolve around positioning, sequencing, and timing. Nothing revolutionary, but still fun
- Be sure to poke around for secrets if you're trying to 100% the game. None of them are too deviously hidden (I only missed a single one by the time I finished). Fortunately, there's a chapter select after you beat the game that allows you to go back for any you passed up

Overall Impressions & Performance
- Amanita may only make one type of game (puzzle adventure games with amazing visuals, minimalist storytelling, and heaps of atmosphere), but they're damn good at it
- Creaks is an ideal Steam Deck game. I played most of it while dealing with air travel. It did a good job distracting me from the cramped 737 seat

Final Verdict
- 7/10. If you're already into Amanita games, this will definitely appeal to you and is definitely worth playing. It's not quite as heartfelt or complex as Machinarium, but it's still a good time with some clever puzzles. Nice to look at, too

Un frasco demasiado grande para tan poco líquido.

Pros:
- Como siempre, Amanita nos brinda un apartado artístico absolutamente impecable.
- La complejidad de los puzles está muy bien medida, y son lo suficientemente cortos para no hacerse bola.
- El imaginario que pone frente al jugador es tremendamente original y un gran soplo de aire fresco.

Contras:
- Demasiados puzles para tan poca variación en sus mecánicas.
- Es fácil caer en la apatía y no tener ganas por descubrir la siguiente nueva mecánica que implementará el juego, ante el largo recorrido requerido para ello.
- Los puzles no casan con el entorno, que intenta contarte una historia de manera demasiado fragmentada.

I enjoyed this. It's a 2D puzzle-platformer by Czech studio Amanita Design, the same team who made Machinarium and Botanicula.

You play as a nameless, voiceless protagonist who one day discovers a passage to an underground world which he falls into and then has to escape from. In practice it reminded me of games like Braid and The Swapper: you make your way through over 50 discrete puzzle screens by ascending and descending ladders, pulling levers, standing on pressure plates and manipulating enemy behaviours to get to the exit without using combat. The gimmick this time around is that light turns monsters into innocuous items of household furniture, so you end up throwing switches at the right moment to turn cuboid dogs into chests of drawers, or scary mimic men into pointy coat stands, and then shift them around to find a way forwards. The puzzles are satisfying without ever being too obscure; I managed to complete the game without using a guide, and I wasn't stuck on any one room for more than ten minutes. In fact, to begin with I thought things were a bit too simplistic, with one puzzle room feeling too much like the last. From about halfway onwards, however, additional mechanics are added to make each scene feel a bit more substantial, and by the final act you're clearing rooms which, to begin with, seemed impossibly convoluted.

The best thing about the game, however, is the way it looks: every single room is brilliantly drawn in an over-detailed, claustrophobic style that reminded me of Marcus Sendak's art for Where The Wild Things Are, or Olivia Kemp's hyper-meticulous pen and ink drawings. The structure itself that you're exploring - an impossible, crumbling, teetering, higgledy-piggledy castle, like a surrealist Gormenghast - is fantastic, and the best reward the game doles out for completing one screen is the treat of seeing the next. The sometimes ominous, sometimes jazzy soundtrack adds to the atmosphere, too, building slowly in time with your thoughts as you figure out each puzzle.

If you like games of this type, or if you appreciate Amanita's earlier stuff, then I would definitely check this out. It doesn't quite have Machinarium's freshness, nor the brain-shifting depth of something like Braid, but it's four hours or so well spent over a weekend, and nearly every room will have you reaching for the Switch's screenshot button. It looks especially lovely on dat OLED screen, too.

8/10

Creaks is a typical Amanita Design game. The art style feels somewhat familiar, if you played any of their other games. Its gorgeous in its own right, for sure, but for me it just felt a bit too grey and colorless. I didn't really enjoy exploring its world, but that may be by design. Also, I don't know if my brain is just wired differently, but some of these puzzles really broke me. I wouldn't consider them to be hard, but somehow, they broke my brain. Not sure, if anyone else feel like this. But this greatly diminished the fun I had with this game.
All of this though, is not really important for me personally. Because the soundtrack this game received is nothing short of a masterpiece. Hidden Orchestra is something that has landed on my playlist for years now and the Creaks OST is up there with the best for me. It's so good I feel it's a bit wasted on this game, but hey, its on Spotify so I'm just gonna continue listening to it there.

This game is easily one of the most lovely, charming and brilliant puzzle experiences I've ever played. As always, Amanita comes back with beautiful art and coupled with the superb music, some brilliant puzzle design and one of the cutest stories in video games, this game is simply the whole package. None of the puzzles are particularly "hard" and you could solve any of them simply with some thought but they definitely make you think at times. The mechanics are extremely inventive, asking you to play with lights and enemies that are in themselves pieces to the solution. I don't want to say more because finding out the mechanics is a joy in itself. The music adds so much to this and is as much a part of the brilliance of the puzzle design as everything else. As you unlock and move through the puzzle, the music steadily increases in complexity, adding drums, flutes and other instruments, cleverly leading you along and letting you know you're doing the right thing. This seems like such a minor detail but adds so much to the exhilarating feeling of solving them. Scattered throughout the levels are small paintings and toys, some of them obvious to find, some hidden and each is an adorable and zany vignette that is such a pleasure to experience

I could easily recommend this game to people of all ages and this is definitely one of the most memorable gaming experiences I've had

Creaks leans into my imagination from when I was a child. Looking for hidden doors, imagining fantastic worlds and creatures both nightmarish and benign. It reminds me of a mixture of Coraline and Dark Crystal mixed into one. You play the role of a young man who is seemingly a student studying whose peace is disturbed by shaking, lights going out and the wallpaper in their dilapidated bedsit falling down revealing a small sealed door hidden behind. The door leads to a vast underground cavern with a giant residential structure that feels like it was designed by M.C Escher.

The game itself is a puzzle title as you explore this large structure meeting the remnants of the occupants and the cause disturbing your dwelling above. It's essentially a series of puzzle rooms split by elevators and hallways. I've seen it described as a platformer equally and it really isn't, the jumps are essentially automated as part of solving the puzzle design. The puzzles themselves are simple but in a way that make you think without getting to frustrated which I appreciated. They are mostly logic puzzles with robot dogs, shadow creatures, switches, lights and levers. I found I could figure most of them out in a reasonable time frame though a few really did stump me despite their simplicity. The issue I had though was they just get a bit old as though there is occasionally a new enemy variety to mix things up nothing really evolves for the playtime and in some ways this game feels really long though it all comes together pretty nicely in the finale.

Creaks biggest strength for me is it's art style. It has a gorgeous hand drawn 2D style that almost feels like a children's book in some ways. It comes across as a little whimsical, I really liked it. There is a large amount of detail in the backgrounds as you explore, tiles, statues, plants and the fantastic interactive paintings you can find on the walls all make Creaks a visually charming experience. It also has a stellar soundtrack by Hidden Orchestra.

This isn't the usual game I buy. I'm not a big puzzle game fan but the positive critic reviews and art piqued my curiosity similar to the previous game of this studio I played, Machinarium. I'm not here for the puzzle gameplay, not really. I'm here for the atmosphere and in that, the developer Amanita Design nailed it.

Another solid game from Amanita Design. The puzzles here felt harder than the usual for them, but I'm aware I'm not great at puzzles about handling many variables by moving in, effectively, a grid, like Sokoban and so, so it could just be that.

The middle third of the game is also composed of repetitive and context-less puzzle rooms, where you play with mostly the same mechanics without a narrative incentive to keep doing it, which made that portion of the game considerably slower to get through than the beginning or the ending, which was delightful.