Quantum Conundrum is a game that takes its history from Portal. Creative Director of Airtight Games, Kim Swift, is the co-creator of Portal. The work that Airtight Games is doing in the development of Quantum Conundrum takes cues from Portal, but has its own puzzle gameplay and instant addiction.
I mean instant addiction because the demo I played was only a trial, but I want to play the full game. The gameplay is fun and intuitive, something I saw with Portal, but couldn’t get into.
Two Dimensions
The main gameplay element is switching between two different realities. The first is called Fluffy, where everything takes a brighter and somewhat pink theme. In this reality, all objects are lightweight. The second reality is a heavy reality where all objects have extremely heavy weights. I had to switch between the two to solve puzzles and move around levels with platformer elements.
Quantum Conundrum has a first person perspective and doesn’t use a lot of buttons. I played a Xbox 360 build because I wanted to use a controller, but the PC version will also support USB controllers as well as keyboard and mouse.
To solve some puzzles I had to switch to the fluffy reality and move previously heavy objects to different markers and then switch to the heavy reality. The demo didn’t have really difficult puzzles, but there was a good rise in difficulty. You can pick up and throw objects, something I did to pass through lasers that were blocking an exit.
Hands on impressions
I’m not great at puzzle platformers, but the gameplay of Quantum Conundrum has one of the best learning curves I’ve experienced. I’m sure game will be more difficult in later levels, but the 20 minute demo was addictive and a lot of fun.
Quantum Conundrum’s graphics have a slight cartoon style. It fits the gameplay really well. While some people might think Quantum Conundrum looks really simple visually, the style and art direction make the game open to all ages.
Although Quantum Conundrum is an excellent mixture of puzzle and platforming gameplay. I kept feeling like I shouldn’t be enjoying the game as much as I was. The gameplay demo was a great introduction to Quantum Conundrum. I’m interesting in seeing what other puzzles the game will have, but the tutorial demo shows an huge amount of potential gameplay.
