ActualWizard
Bio
trying to write out my thoughts and feelings and whatnot about the games i play.
trying to write out my thoughts and feelings and whatnot about the games i play.
Badges
1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
N00b
Played 100+ games
188
Total Games Played
000
Played in 2024
000
Games Backloggd
Recently Reviewed See More
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.