I think including Cypher is cheating, since there's free movement around abstract rooms consisting only of cryptography puzzles grouped by their type
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Incline First Person Puzzle Games with free movement
- Thread starter Spukrian
- Start date
I think including Cypher is cheating, since there's free movement around abstract rooms consisting only of cryptography puzzles grouped by their type
Spukrian
Savant
So I recently played P·O·L·L·E·N. It's an adventure game with some light spooky atmosphere. I liked it. First though, if you're photo-sensitive or epilectic, maybe don't play this game.
https://af.gog.com/game/pollen?as=1649904300
It has a lot of interactions with the environment (if you see a button you could push it, even if it does nothing) and you can pick up most props (and throw them away!). Some heavier props can be punched or kicked to make them move out of your way. There's systematic gravity, but I'm not sure if it's lethal. There was a few times when I fell from a high place and the PC grunted in pain, but to be honest I don't think the game keeps track of health. Well, if I ever replay the game I could test if I get hurt from heavy objects falling on to my head (seems like it might be possible to arrange).
Anyway, the story in the game is that this moonbase on one of Saturn's moons has lost a crewmember and you're the replacement. In the beginning there is some communication on the radio, but after that the story is told by finding notes (yay...) and also finding audio logs! These audio logs are different though, they're recorded on cassette tapes and you have to find a cassette player to listen to them, thankfully there are a few of them around. Some of the audio logs are just music.
The ending... well, the ending is trippy. I'd say it's very beautiful, but maybe it goes on for too long...
https://af.gog.com/game/pollen?as=1649904300
It has a lot of interactions with the environment (if you see a button you could push it, even if it does nothing) and you can pick up most props (and throw them away!). Some heavier props can be punched or kicked to make them move out of your way. There's systematic gravity, but I'm not sure if it's lethal. There was a few times when I fell from a high place and the PC grunted in pain, but to be honest I don't think the game keeps track of health. Well, if I ever replay the game I could test if I get hurt from heavy objects falling on to my head (seems like it might be possible to arrange).
Anyway, the story in the game is that this moonbase on one of Saturn's moons has lost a crewmember and you're the replacement. In the beginning there is some communication on the radio, but after that the story is told by finding notes (yay...) and also finding audio logs! These audio logs are different though, they're recorded on cassette tapes and you have to find a cassette player to listen to them, thankfully there are a few of them around. Some of the audio logs are just music.
The ending... well, the ending is trippy. I'd say it's very beautiful, but maybe it goes on for too long...
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Neuromancer
Augur
- Joined
- Jun 10, 2018
- Messages
- 1,238
Did you play it in VR?
Spukrian
Savant
El Presidente
Arcane
Anyone knows if this is any good? It's sitting on a 95/96% review score right now.
I bought this in the sale and it's pretty good. Haven't done any co-op or anything but the puzzles have been good, and each room has tokens to find so it extends the gameplay a little bit if you like hunting for things/hidden object stuff.. I mostly bought it because the reviews were so good and it has workshop support, which is interesting for this genre. I haven't tried any workshop stuff yet either..
Spukrian
Savant
So I recently played Deliver us the Moon. I did not like it, it's not a game for me. It does far too many things that annoy me.
The description said the game was in both first person and 3rd person so I thought "cool, I can switch between them"... except you can't really do that, the game decides when it switches (mostly first person in Zero-G environments). So technically speaking it's mostly a 3rd person game.
https://af.gog.com/game/deliver_us_the_moon?as=1649904300
The background of the game is that Earth's resources are gone and they built some heliumpowered magical machine on the Moon that transmits electricity wirelessly to the Earth. However one day it stopped sending energy and now 5 years later they send you to restart the machine. As for the story ingame it is told through finding notes and audio logs, which is fine. There's also holograms, obviously inspired by TACOMA, however unlike TACOMA they're just cutscenes where you are frozen in place. I didn't really appreciate the story, it felt far too pretentious and melodramatic, like in a bad walking simulator...
The gameplay consists of exploration and puzzlesolving. The puzzles are very easy, which is fine I guess, unfortunately the developers realized this and decided to artifically enhance difficulty by having the vast majority of them on a timelimit, you have only about 3 mins of air and that is annoying, despite often having more than enough oxygen refills nearby. There are some annoying sequences when you have move very quickly from refill to the next refill, sort of like a chase sequence, except you're not being chased and this is not a horror game. There are a few annoying QTEs as well. There is a forced stealth section near the end that I hated so much I stopped playing the game for several weeks.
Like I said earlier, this game isn't for me. Though I can actually say some positive things about it. The music is occasionally very good. Early in the game you get a drone companion that you need to use to solve some puzzles, I enjoyed that. Also the controls used when pushing heavy objects around are very good, I'd like to see more of that in a better game.
The description said the game was in both first person and 3rd person so I thought "cool, I can switch between them"... except you can't really do that, the game decides when it switches (mostly first person in Zero-G environments). So technically speaking it's mostly a 3rd person game.
https://af.gog.com/game/deliver_us_the_moon?as=1649904300
The background of the game is that Earth's resources are gone and they built some heliumpowered magical machine on the Moon that transmits electricity wirelessly to the Earth. However one day it stopped sending energy and now 5 years later they send you to restart the machine. As for the story ingame it is told through finding notes and audio logs, which is fine. There's also holograms, obviously inspired by TACOMA, however unlike TACOMA they're just cutscenes where you are frozen in place. I didn't really appreciate the story, it felt far too pretentious and melodramatic, like in a bad walking simulator...
The gameplay consists of exploration and puzzlesolving. The puzzles are very easy, which is fine I guess, unfortunately the developers realized this and decided to artifically enhance difficulty by having the vast majority of them on a timelimit, you have only about 3 mins of air and that is annoying, despite often having more than enough oxygen refills nearby. There are some annoying sequences when you have move very quickly from refill to the next refill, sort of like a chase sequence, except you're not being chased and this is not a horror game. There are a few annoying QTEs as well. There is a forced stealth section near the end that I hated so much I stopped playing the game for several weeks.
Like I said earlier, this game isn't for me. Though I can actually say some positive things about it. The music is occasionally very good. Early in the game you get a drone companion that you need to use to solve some puzzles, I enjoyed that. Also the controls used when pushing heavy objects around are very good, I'd like to see more of that in a better game.
Spukrian
Savant
So I completed The Ball a while back. It's a physics based puzzler where you roll a ball over switches. It's ok.
https://af.gog.com/en/game/the_ball?as=1649904300
The story is that you're an archaologist that falls down a hole and find an artifact that can push and pull this ball. As you explore ruins a narrator tells you of the history of the ruins, the ball and its creators. Addional lore is learned by finding secrets.
There's also physics based combat, you gib enemies by rolling the ball over them. Near the end of the game a harder type of enemy appears where you have to be clever and solve a "puzzle" to defeat (e.g. putting the ball on fire and then ramming them).
The game took me about 6 and a half hours to complete. I only got stuck once and it was brief, but at the time I was abit tired. I think that if the game had been longer it would probably felt quite repetetive, maybe even tedious, thankfully it isn't. The game is good, not spectacularly so, but check it out if sounds interesting.
Oh, and the people who made this later made The Solus Project which I highly recommend!
https://af.gog.com/en/game/the_ball?as=1649904300
The story is that you're an archaologist that falls down a hole and find an artifact that can push and pull this ball. As you explore ruins a narrator tells you of the history of the ruins, the ball and its creators. Addional lore is learned by finding secrets.
There's also physics based combat, you gib enemies by rolling the ball over them. Near the end of the game a harder type of enemy appears where you have to be clever and solve a "puzzle" to defeat (e.g. putting the ball on fire and then ramming them).
The game took me about 6 and a half hours to complete. I only got stuck once and it was brief, but at the time I was abit tired. I think that if the game had been longer it would probably felt quite repetetive, maybe even tedious, thankfully it isn't. The game is good, not spectacularly so, but check it out if sounds interesting.
Oh, and the people who made this later made The Solus Project which I highly recommend!
Spukrian
Savant
So I played The Faraday Protocol. Neat little game, a bit short and easy.
https://af.gog.com/game/faraday_protocol?as=1649904300
The story is you play as an interstellar archaeologist exploring this ancient space station and uncovering its history. The story was quite interesting actually, more captivating than the gameplay.
The gameplay is inspired by Portal but much simpler, you have a raygun that can absorb and shoot two different types of energy, which used to power doors, switches, lifts, etc. You also have to solve combination locks by matching different symbols. Occasionally there is some platforming.
The architecture of the space station has some superficial inspiration from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, reminds me a bit of The Lost City in Thief, nice!
So if you're interested, check out some gameplay and if you're still interested get it on a sale (like I said, it's a bit short and easy).
https://af.gog.com/game/faraday_protocol?as=1649904300
The story is you play as an interstellar archaeologist exploring this ancient space station and uncovering its history. The story was quite interesting actually, more captivating than the gameplay.
The gameplay is inspired by Portal but much simpler, you have a raygun that can absorb and shoot two different types of energy, which used to power doors, switches, lifts, etc. You also have to solve combination locks by matching different symbols. Occasionally there is some platforming.
The architecture of the space station has some superficial inspiration from ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, reminds me a bit of The Lost City in Thief, nice!
So if you're interested, check out some gameplay and if you're still interested get it on a sale (like I said, it's a bit short and easy).
Spukrian
Savant
So, apparently there is a sequel to Deliver Us The Moon. It's called Deliver us Mars:
This game is developed by Keoken Interactive, just like Deliver Us The Moon.
For no reason at all I link this tweet, which I find quite funny:
This game is developed by Keoken Interactive, just like Deliver Us The Moon.
For no reason at all I link this tweet, which I find quite funny:
Spukrian
Savant
So I finished The Entropy Centre. Nice game, a Portal Clone or Portal rip-off, except instead of a portal gun you have a time gun. Basically the entire game is taking the recorder thing from Talos Principle and putting it in every puzzle.
https://af.gog.com/en/game/the_entropy_centre?as=1649904300
The Entropy Centre is a moon base that houses a gigantic entropy device, which is used to rewind time if some world ending event happens to Earth. This powered by entropy energy which is generating by using a small, hand held entropy device to solve puzzles. You play as Aria, who has amnesia and she quickly gets her hands on a entropy device controlled by Astra, an AI. They then have to solve puzzles to power the bigger device so that Earth doesn't explode in slowmotion.
I enjoyed the story, quite simple and straightforward, perhaps a bit too predictable. There are computers here and there with emails you can read for background lore, some of them are in hard to reach areas. I didn't find all of them. The voice actors do a fine job. Funny, the voices are American English but the emails seem to be written in British English...
Visually this game looks just like Portal 2. Well, there are som sandy beaches as well, reminds me of Relicta. The humour in this game is also just like Portal's humour. Some might like the similarities to Portal, others might be annoyed by the unoriginality.
The puzzles are nice, a bit short and easy I guess but that's fine. I did get stuck on some of them but eventually got past without having to look up help. EDIT: The game itself isn't short though.
There are quite a few annoying chase sequences where you have to avoid collapsing architecture and/or rising instakill water levels and/or angry drones who shoot homing projectiles. There is also this annoying thing called a "lockdown" where you have solve a simple puzzle while being attacked by several endlessly respawning drones.
Overall, a good game.
----------------------
https://af.gog.com/en/game/the_entropy_centre?as=1649904300
The Entropy Centre is a moon base that houses a gigantic entropy device, which is used to rewind time if some world ending event happens to Earth. This powered by entropy energy which is generating by using a small, hand held entropy device to solve puzzles. You play as Aria, who has amnesia and she quickly gets her hands on a entropy device controlled by Astra, an AI. They then have to solve puzzles to power the bigger device so that Earth doesn't explode in slowmotion.
I enjoyed the story, quite simple and straightforward, perhaps a bit too predictable. There are computers here and there with emails you can read for background lore, some of them are in hard to reach areas. I didn't find all of them. The voice actors do a fine job. Funny, the voices are American English but the emails seem to be written in British English...
Visually this game looks just like Portal 2. Well, there are som sandy beaches as well, reminds me of Relicta. The humour in this game is also just like Portal's humour. Some might like the similarities to Portal, others might be annoyed by the unoriginality.
The puzzles are nice, a bit short and easy I guess but that's fine. I did get stuck on some of them but eventually got past without having to look up help. EDIT: The game itself isn't short though.
There are quite a few annoying chase sequences where you have to avoid collapsing architecture and/or rising instakill water levels and/or angry drones who shoot homing projectiles. There is also this annoying thing called a "lockdown" where you have solve a simple puzzle while being attacked by several endlessly respawning drones.
Overall, a good game.
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I went back to Relicta (mentioned earlier in this thread). I've gotten about 70% through the game but I might have to give up on this game, the puzzles are way to hard. The satisfaction I feel when solving a puzzle is way less than the frustration, effort and time I sink into them now.
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