Hello everyone, and welcome to our review of Quantum Conundrum, developed by Airtight Games and published by Square Enix. If you like the game Portal released by Valve, then you will love this game. Quantum Conundrum is an inter-dimensional very clever first person puzzle game that like the title suggests will make you think bloody hard.
You play as an un-named 10 year old boy, the nephew of a crazy professor called Fitz Quadwrangle, who is voiced by actor John de Lancie. Fitz is a scientist that enjoys experimenting with inter-dimensional rifts, but something goes wrong and the crazy numpty professor has gotten himself trapped in one of the dimensions. Ever wondered where that damn sock disappears too or your keys? Well you may find them here…
Your main role is to make your way through Fitz’s over the top crazy inter-dimensional mansion, where every room will test your mind with experiments run amok and tricky puzzles. Through your journey Fitz will chat to you via the intercom, just listening to him is great but he’s not there to tell you you’re objectives but explains the different dimensions and waffles on about his experiments. The games visuals are not great as they are not the standard I would expect from games of today; however they are good enough for the price tag. One thing that drew my attention and made me giggle was the paintings on the walls, why? Well with each dimension the paintings would change to reflect the dimension you are currently in, so I would advise you keep an eye out for these as some mid puzzle entertainment. Along your journey you will meet a li’l fella called Ike, one of the games humorous but adorable tics. He won’t do much just there, as you do, keeping you company.
Your first job is to go find and acquire the glove referred to as the Inter-dimensional Shift Devise or IDS for short. Any way this device allows you to shift through dimensions. You can only be in one dimension at any one time and the number of dimensions available is factored in by which part of the manor you are currently in and by which dimensional batteries have been placed near the receptacle.
So you may be wondering or saying “come on artist get on with it, tell us about the dimensions”. Well the first of many dimensions you get to play in is the sleep dimension “Well that’s what I call it” it’s really called the Fluffy Dimension. So named because every object here is light and fluffy easy to pick up, throw and move around. The Fluffy dimension is one of my favourite dimensions to be in, as everything looks really comfy, but this dimension has its uses in the grand scheme of the game. For example the force of gravity has no place here objects that would be extremely hard to shift in the normal dimension are nearly weightless and can be moved with ease. Ever wondered what it would be like to pick up your sofa and throw out the window? Try going into the fluffy dimension pick one up throw it towards the windows, then flip back to normal and watch it shattering the window, it looks rather sweet. Have to admit sometimes I fancied saying “HULK SMASH”.
We found the puzzles at the start were more or less a way to get to grips with the mechanics, as they were rather easy to complete. When you finally get into the next dimension, the Heavy Dimension, everything that is normally light becomes impossibly heavy. Do not expect things to be easy on your travels as some rooms contain lasers and will eat away at your life if you’re not careful. The use of different combinations of dimensions to work your way through a puzzle is a great concept. An example of this would be moving a safe on to a spring board; this starts in the fluffy dimension where you would move the safe above a spring board, then you would switch to normal dimension causing the spring to coil, lastly you would switch back to fluffy dimension where the spring would push the safe into the air
Now we move on to the third dimension, this one gives you the ability of slow motion. Everything in this dimension is unbelievably slow, making it easier to avoid lasers and getting to a safe spot before they hit you. Ok slow motion has its benefits but this game takes the piss; I threw an object from one room to the next room then ran passed the object, left my keyboard, made a coffee came back to my system and the object was just arriving. Besides this extreme exaggeration there are also some sweet benefits to this dimension; when trying to cross large gaps in the floor this slow dimension really shines. Throwing a large item like a footstool across the void and then standing on it while it glides to the other side is an effective way of using this dimension and pretty fun to watch.
The fourth and final dimension totally screws up gravity, this is Gravity in Reverse dimension, so expect everything that is not stuck to the floor somehow to be stuck to the ceiling instead. This allows you to use heavy objects to help reach things high up, a bit like a lift to activate switches. This whole dimension thing as awesome and really adds a whole new twist on puzzle solving.
You will need to use all the dimensions that are available within the section to complete a stage and get to the exit, this will tax your brain, if you not got a brain then just give up now. We found that within some stages we would just sit there wondering what the hell to do, but when we got it, it felt like a light bulb had just been switched on and the difficulty of the level just became crystal clear and easy to do.
Problem solving is not the only thing to contend with and the part we are about to explain was possibly harder than the puzzle solving. First person platform jumping, we all know how hard it is to judge a gap in first person, so when it comes to leaping onto an object static or in motion for whatever reason it’s bloody hard, yet the developers still add these almost impossible scenarios in the game. How about this one you need to leap from furniture to furniture while activating switches, all the while trying to keep things afloat by going from dimension to dimension all because of the god damn lasers that you needed to dodge… OMG.
This game is brain bogglingly awesome and bloody hard on times and for the price it’s well worth the purchase. It will twist your mind, make you want to smash your screen or even get that coffee and sit there wondering how the hell I can do this. For a great price of £9.99 or $14.99 this game is bang on for the money full of clever ideas and brainteasers, if you’re a fan of puzzle games then this conundrum is one for you.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
