Superliminal is a mind-bending first person puzzler with great atmosphere, a sweet OST and some of the freshest and most innovative ideas since Portal - albeit a bit too short overall and a bit unfocused at times. Still, one of the most unique gaming experiences I've had in a while.
8/10
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It's been a good while since I've played a first person puzzler that truly surprised me with what that genre can even do.
Let's address the elephant in the room first: Yes, this game is very much in the same vein of, and strongly inspired by Valve's 'Portal'. It wears its influence proudly on its sleeve and doesn't even attempt to hide that fact, with such nods as a snarky AI lady condescendingly bossing you around, the game taking place (seemingly at least) in the bowels of an infinitely large warehouse complex and just the general humour and vibes and so on - that, and the fact that this game also features a mind-bending gimmick-mechanic that defines the core gameplay loop.
Where Portal has its, well, portals, Superliminal instead uses the power of perspective. Think back to when you were a kid, and you looked up at the moon and pretended to pick it up with your finger. How small it looked between your thumb and index finger. Now imagine you could actually pick it up and put that microscopic moon on your table. And then pick up that very same moon and drop it into the ocean, now suddenly larger than it ever was. That is, in essence, what this game is doing - that and much more.
Needless to say, this results in some of the most out-of-the-box and unexpected puzzles and situations that make your brain go "oof ouch owie" in the best way possible. Sometimes, it's not as much about solving a puzzle as it is about simply wowing you with the game design wizardry that's happening before your eyes. This is honestly one of the craziest gimmicks I've seen in any game ever, including Valve's aforementioned seminal masterpiece.
Portal is not the only game Superliminal draws inspiration from of course; the very Backrooms-y setting of the game, the general humour and vibes, the way the game constantly pulls out the rug from under you as well as the occasional voice messages we receive from Dr. Glenn Pierce are fairly reminiscent of CCC's "The Stanley Parable" in particular.
I particularly enjoyed the 'liminal space' themed environment that very likely is the namesake for the game.
Sadly, the game as a whole is very short. It can be very easily beaten in under 4 hours. I even managed to unlock an alternate ending without trying, and as such had practically fully completed the game in about 5 hours. This isn't necessarily a problem in principle, but in terms of a product review, asking 20€ for something this short-lived strikes me as rather steep. What's more is that this game doesn't really lend itself to multiple play-throughs due to the surprisingly inflexible solutions to most of the various puzzles.
As for the puzzles themselves; they are for the most part very interestingly designed but rather simple to solve. There were only very few puzzles I had to think about for longer than a few minutes, and only one I had to look up. Compared to other 1st Person Puzzlers like The Talos Principle, The Witness, Antichamber and Portal, most of the puzzles here are barely even puzzles. The thing is, I don't really hold it against the game as a flaw as crafting the most obtuse and impenetrable head-scratchers clearly wasn't the intention.
The intention is to make you go "wow" at every turn and constantly surprise you. And I would say it mostly succeeds with that, at least it did for me. There are some parts in the mid game that feel a bit underdeveloped and don't really make use of the full power of what this game can do, but the end very much makes up for it in my opinion.
As for the story; it's good enough. It didn't blow me away the way games like The Beginner's Guide or The Talos Principle did, but it worked well enough and held my interest until the end. A lesser developer would've bogged this game down with a much more in-depth exploration of the player-characters personality or exact explanations of how the dream-thing works, but Pillow Castle clearly knew better and let the game speak for itself.
While not being the hardest or most rewarding puzzler out there, Superliminal's strenghts lie in its extraordinarily creative setting and atmosphere. Hard recommend if you're a fan of experimental puzzle games.
8/10
8/10
.
.
.
.
.
It's been a good while since I've played a first person puzzler that truly surprised me with what that genre can even do.
Let's address the elephant in the room first: Yes, this game is very much in the same vein of, and strongly inspired by Valve's 'Portal'. It wears its influence proudly on its sleeve and doesn't even attempt to hide that fact, with such nods as a snarky AI lady condescendingly bossing you around, the game taking place (seemingly at least) in the bowels of an infinitely large warehouse complex and just the general humour and vibes and so on - that, and the fact that this game also features a mind-bending gimmick-mechanic that defines the core gameplay loop.
Where Portal has its, well, portals, Superliminal instead uses the power of perspective. Think back to when you were a kid, and you looked up at the moon and pretended to pick it up with your finger. How small it looked between your thumb and index finger. Now imagine you could actually pick it up and put that microscopic moon on your table. And then pick up that very same moon and drop it into the ocean, now suddenly larger than it ever was. That is, in essence, what this game is doing - that and much more.
Needless to say, this results in some of the most out-of-the-box and unexpected puzzles and situations that make your brain go "oof ouch owie" in the best way possible. Sometimes, it's not as much about solving a puzzle as it is about simply wowing you with the game design wizardry that's happening before your eyes. This is honestly one of the craziest gimmicks I've seen in any game ever, including Valve's aforementioned seminal masterpiece.
Portal is not the only game Superliminal draws inspiration from of course; the very Backrooms-y setting of the game, the general humour and vibes, the way the game constantly pulls out the rug from under you as well as the occasional voice messages we receive from Dr. Glenn Pierce are fairly reminiscent of CCC's "The Stanley Parable" in particular.
I particularly enjoyed the 'liminal space' themed environment that very likely is the namesake for the game.
Sadly, the game as a whole is very short. It can be very easily beaten in under 4 hours. I even managed to unlock an alternate ending without trying, and as such had practically fully completed the game in about 5 hours. This isn't necessarily a problem in principle, but in terms of a product review, asking 20€ for something this short-lived strikes me as rather steep. What's more is that this game doesn't really lend itself to multiple play-throughs due to the surprisingly inflexible solutions to most of the various puzzles.
As for the puzzles themselves; they are for the most part very interestingly designed but rather simple to solve. There were only very few puzzles I had to think about for longer than a few minutes, and only one I had to look up. Compared to other 1st Person Puzzlers like The Talos Principle, The Witness, Antichamber and Portal, most of the puzzles here are barely even puzzles. The thing is, I don't really hold it against the game as a flaw as crafting the most obtuse and impenetrable head-scratchers clearly wasn't the intention.
The intention is to make you go "wow" at every turn and constantly surprise you. And I would say it mostly succeeds with that, at least it did for me. There are some parts in the mid game that feel a bit underdeveloped and don't really make use of the full power of what this game can do, but the end very much makes up for it in my opinion.
As for the story; it's good enough. It didn't blow me away the way games like The Beginner's Guide or The Talos Principle did, but it worked well enough and held my interest until the end. A lesser developer would've bogged this game down with a much more in-depth exploration of the player-characters personality or exact explanations of how the dream-thing works, but Pillow Castle clearly knew better and let the game speak for itself.
While not being the hardest or most rewarding puzzler out there, Superliminal's strenghts lie in its extraordinarily creative setting and atmosphere. Hard recommend if you're a fan of experimental puzzle games.
8/10