Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut (2014)

Didn't know much about what it was about other than puzzles. Really cool game that feels like Portal kind of. Each room is a puzzle advance to the next, etc. Turing Test is a little similar to this. Not so sure what to make of the story. Didn't care for the time attack thing which is basically spins the game on its head turning the game into various parkour-style challenges with weird power ups (gave up on this by the second room)

Would like to see something like this with traps/survival horror based on the old movie Cube.

This review is for the 10th Anniversary remake of Q.U.B.E., which is a ground-up remake of the Director's Cut of the game.

When QUBE was originally released, it was eclipsed by the presence of Portal, which it takes inspiration from. Even I assumed it to be a derivative of Portal as I started my playthrough, but that opinion changed the more I played.

QUBE's core puzzle mechanic involves cubes of multiple colors, each having a slightly different ability. Red cubes offer simple platforms, Blue cubes bounce objects off, Green cubes generate weighted cubes for you to move around, and so forth. The game's design amazed me with the way each cube is introduced without any prompts or text-based tutorials. Instead, each cube gets a simple puzzle room to showcase its ability. Once you've figured what one specific cube does, it's time to introduce the next one. Once you know a few types of cubes, it's time to introduce puzzles that combine their abilities to lead to a solution.

QUBE takes this visual learning approach and does it so well that puzzles keep mounting in difficulty and increasing in complexity all the way to the end. If the main game's puzzles leave you wanting more, the 10th anniversary edition includes an area named sector 8, which features puzzles so complex that it's almost the same length as the entire main game.

QUBE's main campaign also involves a story. It's the kind of the story that's best experienced with little to no information beforehand, so I won't get into it here. I did find it engaging within the minimal context of the game.

The 10th anniversary also includes some extras within the game, such as developer commentary and an essay by the creator of the original game. The essay offers some amazing perspective on the game's story; I recommend reading it after you've completed the game.

To anyone considering a playthrough of this game, but thinking that it's too similar to Portal - please disregard that assumption and dive in. I think you'll find it pleasantly surprising.

So very similar to Portal in atmosphere and set up (clean white rooms with puzzles in them, a strange voice in your ear, not knowing who or where you are), it serves to highlight how ingenious Portal really is. The puzzles here are repetitive, the pace staid and plodding and the conflict of voices doesn't really grip until near the end.

It also is a bit fiddly with environment control and lacks humor. So, it's ok for a few short hours, but nothing more than that.

Lots of people would say this game has borrowed inspiration from Portal series and it is true, but that does not make it a bad game. Personally, I have played both first and second installation of portal and still liked this game.

Spoiler: The story of this game is you are trapped on other planet alone and only have one way communication with someone from space who is also alone there. The communication channel is occasionally interrupted from other person who tries to misguide you to quit following the exit path.

Pro's and Con's: The puzzles are really nice and refreshing without being overly complicated. Also the level of difficulty gradually increasing which is not often properly implemented in puzzle game from my experience. Some downsides include lack of description of new types of cubes (which makes it fun in a way), but there should be some help when the player is stuck, like it was not obvious that magnets could be stopped by clicked them. Last couple of puzzles are really difficult, and especially the last one does not seem intuitive at all.

Overall, kudos to the dev team and hope this series continues in the future. To that effect, one final suggestion would be to add custom editable puzzles like portal 2 so community can contribute and the game can continue even after completion of main story!