Recent reviews by Magicon

Decent puzzler, but the story, despite a couple of interesting base concepts, does not pay off on them in anything close to a satisfying manner.

I had some fun with it, but, honestly, if I knew what I knew now, I wouldn't have bought it... ironically.

The issue was writing, not game mechanics, which is a shame.

Good game, and while it might seem impossible, it's never unfair.

A blast to play with friends, and I don't mean that just literally, because Friendly Fire cannot be turned off, and turrets are going to hit your enemies, even if they have to go through you to do it.

The publisher, Sony, tried to pull some 'retroactive agreement change' BS, but, when the community came together, especially as this change would've bricked the game if you just happened to live somewhere the PSN network didn't cover, the community came together and made them back off.

So I suggest this game, but be aware, who knows if Sony might try and pull some anti-consumer BS in the future.

It's a good game at it's core, with an interesting idea, and simplistic combat that makes up for it by being very fast and fluid.

So why don't I recommend this game?


Because Every Single Character, the ones you've learned about, the ones who you have come to empathize with, the ones that you might even care a bit about, has a Bad End.

ALL of them.

The game is literally built upon a time-loop mechanic, the kind that, like Majora's Mask, should let you pull one last 'Today, everyone lives!' golden run, but it's so incredibly restrictive in how it functions that, nope, you did your job, you stopped the end of the world, game over, and there's nothing you can do to stop it (ironically). Oh, all the rest of the issues plaguing the land that pushed it to this point in the first palce? Helping out these poor fools who have been manipulated by the true evil you stopped and were all doing what they thought was right?

Nope. Screw 'em. Despair and death for everyone!

Because, I don't know, fate, or you can't win everything, or something darkly thematic.

. . . Yay.

It's not even that you die in the attempt, just a 'Okay, you saved the world, but it continues to be horrible, too bad' gutpunch detailing how everyone eventually died horribly, one way or another.

Roll credits.

So, if you're in it just for the combat, or the mystery, and Bad yet Thematic endings are your jam, go for it, but I thought this game was great RIGHT up until the very last moment, and now I wished I'd spoiled the story for myself, so I wouldn't have wasted my money.

I'm sure, if this game worked as advertised, it'd be great. However, the unintuitive design, spotty hit detection, and occasional moments of lag made this game one I'm putting down, and only the fact that I took too long to get to it after christmas is the only reason I'm not refunding it.

The first boss, some angler-fish looking thing with tentacles, killed me time after time, as I struggled to, even after I THINK I figured out what to do, the game not giving very much feedback if what I was doing was even correct, pass what, from the trailer, appears to be the first stage. This is not because I am uncoordinated, but because my hits wouldn't register half the time, and the game would start to lag when there were more than three attacks coming at once.

Perhaps this is because I was having trouble with Steam VR, but it was only the last of a number of headaches as I desperately tried to figure out what it was that I was supposed to be doing, bumbling and fumbling my way around, in what I'm sure the designers thought was 'emergent storytelling', but was closer to 'try random things until something finally works'.

The game looks interesting, it really does, but what value there might be contained within is not worth the headaches involved in getting to them. Unless you're completely out of things to play, I'd suggest giving this a pass, as there are many other, better VR games available, where you feel like you are making progress and not stumbling into one mess after another.

Great little puzzle game! It's certainly an interesting little plot, and the puzzles were inventive, if a little easy at times. I blew through it in ~3 hours, but, as I got it on sale, and I really did enjoy it, I'd still suggest it. $20 might be a bit much, but at it's current price of $12, I'd say it's worth it if you've got a bit of money to burn and an interest in the new and odd.

Honestly, my only complaint is that it wasn't longer!

Dated, but still fun. You can beat the entire thing in ~7 hours, but every time it starts to drag, you probably only have 30 minutes before the game shifts locales, and it's new again. If you're a fan of Star Wars, especially the Prequels, and know your way around a first person shooter, you'll most likely enjoy this game.

Also, three things one should know going in:
1. Set the game to easy. Some enemies are absolute bullet sponges if you don't.
2. The mouse sensitivity for the menu is insane, but isn't reflected in the gameplay.
3. Conserve Ammo when you can. Even on easy, there is barely enough to get by. Ammo is around, and if you're not constantly looking for it, you'll be left trying to take out the bigger battle droids with a pistol, or depending on the others to do it for you, which can kinda suck.

A quirky 'little' puzzle/platform, like Gumby meets the old Legend of Zelda games. I highly suggest you try the demo, as it's a good taste of the game and you can pick up right where you left off if you buy it (like I did).

Well worth the full $10.
The puzzles can get VERY hard, but are all still doable, the plot is surprisingly interesting, and the atmosphere can get downright spooky. It is VERY short, so be warned there, but there's hidden extra difficult puzzles hidden behind invisibile walls (one per chapter, I think) if you want the challenge. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'll say that despire the short length, I think I got my money's worth. It's not Portal, but I never got the sense that it really was trying to be despite some of the reviews, and this is a game I would definitely suggest to my friends.

A true dissapointment.
The original Q.U.B.E. was highly astmospheric, inventive, and the plot, while sparse, had me unsure if I was doing the right thing until the very last cutscene. It's puzzles were inventive, and while sometimes rage-inducing in their "How the heck do I do this!?" nature were made all the sweeter when I figured it out.

Q.U.B.E. 2 is none of those things. They gave the main character a voice, and she's a judgy, emotional, irrational idiot who doesn't question anything she's told and whose dialogue only served to make me like her less with each passing hour. The levels are mostly bright and some of them look quite nice, but never really provoked much of a responce other than, "huh, that's nice," before moving onto the puzzles. And the PUZZLES.

I'm not sure what happened between games, but they were all so tremendously simple that even at the end it never took me more than a minute to figure out the next step, the last one only long in the sheer number of steps needed to complete it, not its complexity or requirement for lateral thinking. Some new mechanics were added, but several of the more interesting ones from the first game were stripped out entirely (the yellow and purple qubes), vastly limiting possible actions and removing the mind-bending 3-dimensional aspect of the original entirely. Yes, there was an elevation aspect to most of the puzzles, making it technically 3-d, but all basic 'throw this' or 'this drops down' stuff, never on the scale of the original. All that pales in comparison to the plot however.

Q.U.B.E.'s general lack of plot actually worked, as the story that both people who talk to you tell you are equally unlikely, and without the ability to reply (Broken radio, cliche'd but effective) you can't ask the kind of penetrating questions that would help you unravel the mystery as you press forward. Q.U.B.E. 2 tries for the same conflicting narrative, but while the weirdness of the setting helped make you doubt both stories in the original, here it's just silly. No spoliers in case you still want to buy this (though I wouldn't pay more than 5 bucks for the basic puzzles and the semi-interesting scenery), but the plot makes very little sense, and as soon as you start to think critically about what's being said to you, it makes no sense at all. And the ending? Let me put it this way: Do you die on your feet trying to protect all of humanity, or live on your knees as a slave to that which threatened everything? It's incredibly obvious that the latter is supposed to be the "good" ending where humanity is to blame for everything, despite doing nothing objectively wrong, and what you're kowtowing to having BLATANTLY LIED to you if you can remember dialogue from TWO HOURS ago, but sure, Pacificm always works. A+ writing there.

So, if you're extrodinarily bored, like puzzle games, and this thing is HEAVILY discounted, sure, go ahead. Just know you aren't playing this for its plot, difficulty, or inventiveness. If you haven't, play the original instead, it's much better than this tripe and well worth it's $10 price tag.

An interesting experience, and if one can get it for $10 or less, definitely worth it in my opinion. I got it as part of the Humble Monthly Bundle, and it's one of those games that toes the line on the entire "Game" part. It's definitely a bit of a walking similator, but the storytelling concept and the world was well built enough that it was an enjoyable experience, though I do wonder if the game HAS a failure-state. I will point out that poking all the corners and reading everything, I still beat it in 3 hours, but I don't regret it. On a side note, this is from the same developers from the infamous Gone Home and while the Progresive talking points are there (the only married couple are lesbians), it's not as in-your-face as their first work, and easy enough to ignore. Unlike Gone Home I'm glad I played it, and would suggest it to others (But not at $20, that's just ridiculous!).