Superliminal story12/14/2023 ![]() ![]() That’s when I realized that if I could make the sign tiny just by interacting with it when I was far away, the reverse must also be true. So I had the problem of trying to hold down two buttons with only one sign. I stepped on the other button and the door opened, but when I stepped off it shut again. Or rather, it remained exactly the same size it had appeared from far away when I grabbed it. I grabbed it from the far side of the room and when I swung it around to place it on one of the buttons, it was tiny. The only thing I could grab and toy with was an exit sign. In one room I needed to get through a door that would only open if two buttons were pressed at the same time. It’s not terribly deep (until the end), but it provides enough motivation and intrigue to keep you going.ĭo you want a paradox? Because that’s how you get a paradox.Īllow me to elaborate. It’s a premise similar to many we’ve seen in the past, like The Spectrum Retreat and Portal. The only way to do so is to solve the puzzles laid before you, all while being judged by an AI. However, you soon learn that you have gone past the known limits of the program and have to figure out how to escape. You play as a nameless protagonist who has checked in to a facility to be a part of a dream therapy program. There’s not too much a of a story within Superliminal. That was one of the best surprises I’ve had in a while. Still, the gameplay looked like nothing I’d seen in the past, so I decided to give it try. It appeared unique, but I’ve been fooled countless times before. This was my fear when I first saw the trailer for Pillow Castle’s Superliminal. Many of them rehash the same ideas over and over, with a new coat of paint to make them seem fresh. With a moral to its story that is uplifting during a time which we could all use a new perspective, Superliminal is one of the more inventive games on a Nintendo platform today.Puzzle games, while being one of my favorite genres, are a dime a dozen these days. An unassuming package on its face that as you peel back the layers, will be filled with surprises and gratification as you find out what point of view it wants you to see the puzzle from. Superliminal is a breath of fresh air, the kind of game you want other people to play but don’t want to talk with them about until you’ve both experienced it. This unraveling weaves well into the storytelling, although it also comes with occasional performance hiccups and stutters, which undercut the impressiveness at times. In a way, it reminded me of the later hours of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where Jim Carrey’s character is rapidly losing his memories but they’re being taken from him in segmented parts rather than vanishing one at a time. It's the later parts of the game where things seem to be unraveling when Superliminal treats you with the most memorable visuals and environments. A bland kind of muzak fills many of these spaces with the kind of tunes you’d expect from a waiting room, which has its own charm but can get grating after hearing it for too long. A lot of the environments are drab bedrooms, hallways, and large rooms with very basic looking furniture, doors, wall décor, and signage. So much of what’s fun in Superliminal are the surprises and “aha!” moments of figuring out how to view a new puzzle.Īesthetically, the look of the game varies between unremarkable and stunning. I obliquely referenced Portal above, but it’s exactly that type of inventive mechanic that’s ingrained in the entire experience that I’m almost afraid of divulging too many types of puzzles. From one view, it clearly is painted on the wall, but if I lined my sight up just right until it formed the perfect shape of the block, I could pick it up off the backdrop and it materialized into a whole 3D block that could be used. For example, one room has a wall with a black and white checkered block painted on a wall and beam. Where you first learn about the height of drop changing the size of held items, the following level will teach you about background pictures being grabbable. ![]() Holding an item and lowering your view to the ground beforeĮach cascading level builds beautifully on what you learned in the prior one. I repeat this until the block is as large as me, making a helpful stepping stool to a door slightly out of reach. When I let go, it falls from the sky, but upon landing it’s now double its size. I pick up a block and raise it above my head. But what’s novel about this concept is how you use those tools by altering your perspective, which allows you to interact with these background objects differently. Your tools are the environment itself, jumping, and grabbing/rotating items that can be picked up. It’s the type of puzzles that Superliminal employs that make it stand-out amongst a crowded field. ![]()
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