Manifold Garden

This game kind of feels like eating a bunch of empty calories. I seemed like I had some sort of challenging, deep experience while playing it, but the longer I've digested it, the more I've realized I really didn't eat anything of substance. And now I'm just hungry for something else. There were a couple of factors that drew me towards this game. The first was the art direction. I don't think anybody can deny this is a beautiful-looking game. It's very zen and aesthetically pleasing and psychedelic. The second factor was seeing the developer talk about the game at GDC. He was discussing how some of the levels infinitely repeat their landscapes, and how this forced him to approach level design radially. I found that to be an interesting concept. The game paid off in those respects, but I found it to be a pretty forgettable experience otherwise. Let's start with the level design. The radial level design was a unique selling point for me originally, and it's pretty cool how you can fall off any edge and wind up in the same place in an infinitely repeating landscape. It's very appealing aesthetically, too. But, I can't really think of any stand-out moments where this feature introduced a unique challenge. The strongest point in its favor is that it forces you to get your bearings on how to navigate each level, but that could be said about many games in the first person puzzle genre like Portal, and even very old ones like Myst. Some of the levels are very beautiful aesthetically and really capitalize on the infinitely-repeating landscape idea, but don't actually have anything to offer mechanically beyond figuring out how to walk from the entrance to the exit. On that note, let's talk mechanics. There are puzzle-solving mechanics involving blocks and gravitational surfaces, but that's the only interaction the player will experience beyond navigation. One could argue the simplicity is a strength, but I don't think the mechanics on offer were interesting (or unique) enough to justify an entire game built around them. For what it's worth, the puzzles themselves are mostly satisfying, even though it's a pretty easy game. It's one of those games where it's obvious what you're supposed to do, but not always obvious how you do it. But, then again, I could say that about a lot of other games (like Portal, or the Talos Principle), which I would recommend far more than Manifold Garden. This game is a prime example of just how significant of a role art direction plays in indie games, because that's ultimately what got me to purchase the game. Sometimes, there are even games where aesthetics are the only selling point (like Cuphead, which I do recommend). The art was enough to get me to buy Manifold Garden, but it wasn't enough to get me to recommend it to others. And, once you adjust to the art style, the puzzles and mechanics weren't anything to call home about. If you're looking for a game that has great puzzles and a similar art direction, check out Antichamber. Perhaps my point about this is best encapsulated by the ending of the game, because I did play it all the way through. Don't worry, no spoilers. There's not really much of a story to be found in Manifold Garden (and that's not a critique - I enjoy plenty of games without clear stories, like Dustforce). At the end of Manifold Garden, the player is rewarded with a cutscene where the entire world you've been exploring spirals into a beautiful psychedelic pattern. It's nice to watch it, but while I was watching it, I noticed myself feeling disappointed that the psychedelic atmosphere was all this game really had to offer me. And, if I wanted that sort of experience, I can think of plenty of movies that would have been more worth my time (and maybe a few illicit substances). I give it a "meh" out of ten.

I have only played what I assume to be about a third of the way through this game, and I can already tell you that it is one of the best puzzle games I have played in the last few years. To me it feels like a mix between Portal 2's button and cube type puzzles, Superliminal's crazy illusions and tricks. The amount of heart put into this game is staggering. If you enjoy the games I listed before, You should pick this one up.

Круть

Hmm, where to start with this one? Don't get me wrong, Manifold Garden is absolutely gorgeous when you first boot it up. The main mechanic is genuinely cool and rarely used in other games you basically control the 3D orientation of the entire world. Walking up to a wall, making it your new floor, and falling through a never-ending space of repeating structures is a trip. But "initially" is the keyword here. While the puzzles are fun at first, the magic fades pretty fast because the game is just way too abstract for my taste. I’m a lore and story guy. I love puzzlers, but I need a reason to care about the world I'm in. In this game, nothing is ever added in terms of world building, lore, or story as you progress. You're just solving puzzles in an infinite, sterile void. On top of that, not all the puzzles are actually fun to solve, and constantly shifting gravity around in a repeating void can get seriously disorienting after a while. If you just want pure, abstract spatial puzzles and don't care about a plot at all, you might really enjoy this. But for me, the mechanics alone just weren't enough to keep me interested. It looks amazing, but without any story or lore to anchor it, it just felt empty.

The game is interesting and has lots of visual material. But it can get a bit overwhelming sometimes and I occasionally got motion sickness from changing gravity too frequently. Some levels are huge so you might find yourself wandering for a long time before you know where everything is.

A realm of recursive architecture, the ground below becomes the sky. Fractals of stone. Puzzles of light. Traverse six planes orthogonal; the horizons fold into themselves. But this is all, there is no more. Color meets socket, water meets wheel, but challenge never meets the mark. Rulesets isolated, new mechanics never overlap. At first sight puzzles are solved, at first sight the mystery is had. Navigation disorients, doorways blend away. Now walk and wander, and walk and wander more. The rooms were never lived in, The infinite halls grow sterile, The buildings have no echoes. No one walked this way before, this museum where awe becomes routine. Trees of color bloom but there is no picture insight.

not a big puzzle gamer normally but everything else in the game made it so worthwhile!

Loved it ! It's mind twisting, it gave me goosebumps. The only other game that had this effect on me was NaissanceE

a beautiful game with abhorrent design. if this was a video series or short film, i'd have enjoyed it far, far more. most of the difficultly in the puzzles comes from trying to find where anything is, but once you find the pieces it's just a matter of the square peg going into the square hole. personally, i do not think that is a good way to design puzzles. edit: after beating the alternate route, i must say this game is not only horribly designed, but utterly exhausting to play; i've never felt this tired after beating a game.