The mechanics, difficulty progression, and world are well done. Music, voices, humor are all plusses. Solid entry into the first-person puzzler genre with a clever mechanic. There is no avoiding the problems that are universal to the genre: collision & platforming mistakes (by the player or the engine) are painful, players can out-maneuver some level design, and unfair comparisons to Portal.

The rest of the review is a rant.

"Message hunting" is one of the worst GAMEPLAY elements. Excellent if used to enhance the story, but compelling players to comb through EVERY bland environmental nook is awful. It is ANTI-PLAYER (!) to popup a "total terminals found" on center screen so frequently, baiting all players to seek them all. It's likely this was just tacked on as an achievement since it's a "collectable", but I hate the decision. These messages are clearly optional to the puzzles and bring nothing to the actual gameplay.

If hidden objects are intended as a gameplay element, improve how they are tracked. Bake it into the vanilla progression. Want to encourage players to revisit levels? Expand the "Act Select" into a proper level selection. Don't keep the option locked behind end-game completion. One of the worst feelings a developer can give a player? Lock a gate behind them frequently AND have them worry they missed something they cannot backtrack to. Then drop a popup they found "X of Y" of these elements in the entire game.

The mechanics, difficulty progression, and world are well done. Music, voices, humor are all plusses. Solid entry into the first-person puzzler genre with a clever mechanic. There is no avoiding the problems that are universal to the genre: collision & platforming mistakes (by the player or the engine) are painful, players can out-maneuver some level design, and unfair comparisons to Portal. The rest of the review is a rant. "Message hunting" is one of the worst GAMEPLAY elements. Excellent if used to enhance the story, but compelling players to comb through EVERY bland environmental nook is awful. It is ANTI-PLAYER (!) to popup a "total terminals found" on center screen so frequently, baiting all players to seek them all. It's likely this was just tacked on as an achievement since it's a "collectable", but I hate the decision. These messages are clearly optional to the puzzles and bring nothing to the actual gameplay. If hidden objects are intended as a gameplay element, improve how they are tracked. Bake it into the vanilla progression. Want to encourage players to revisit levels? Expand the "Act Select" into a proper level selection. Don't keep the option locked behind end-game completion. One of the worst feelings a developer can give a player? Lock a gate behind them frequently AND have them worry they missed something they cannot backtrack to. Then drop a popup they found "X of Y" of these elements in the entire game.