This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ game. This ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ GAME. Now this was a remarkable puzzle game. It was easily the most frustrating puzzle game I've ever had the pleasure of playing, and I absolutely loved it.
WHAT IT DO :
You have a collection of base shapes, such as cubes or dodecahedrons, which form various larger 3D structures. The object is to rotate this 3D structure such that it can fit into a hole which it is steadily, almost imperceptibly moving towards. Think of it like shining a light at the ground so that your shape makes a certain shadow, and rotating it so that the shadow matches the pattern given. Except there's a time limit. Or you only have a certain amount of rotation you can perform before it locks up. Or sometimes both of these things. And also each level has multiple phases and they keep adding more and more of the base shape to your object, changing the shadow it can make. Also everything is randomized so you'll never get the same setup twice. Oh and the boss-mode fights have a second timer you have to beat across all phases, and everything is wireframe and terrible. And also there is a [spoiler]secret world, and a secret level to the secret world, and secret mandatory bonus rounds on several of the final puzzles, because ♥♥♥♥ you apparently[/spoiler].
THE BAD
Really there's not a whole lot to criticize. The story is remarkably generic and terribly edited, grammatically speaking. The overuse of secret achievements, driven primarily by [spoiler]the aforementioned secret level and secret shenanigans[/spoiler] was kind of annoying, especially if you're trying to budget your time to reach the climax of the game on a particular sitting and have your plans ruined because [spoiler]oh look [strike]29[/strike] 30 new levels to deal with[/spoiler]. But that's kind of a niche concern, so not really a big deal?
THE GOOD
Everything else. The music is as far as I can remember just the same couple of things over and over, but it's dramatic enough and loops well enough to not be an issue. The splash art is decent, if somewhat repetitive as they use a few images more than once. And the gameplay is flawless. Absolutely frustrating, but wtf are you playing a hardmode puzzle game with a time limit for if not to get at least a little frustrated? The mechanics, multiple base-shapes, and exciting boss levels are simply incomparably good.
I would absolutely recommend this game to people looking for a more hardcore puzzle experience. This is no slow-and-cerebral Hexcells or adventurous philosophical romp like The Talos Principle, this is a race against time to solve a seemingly-endless series of spacial-orientation puzzles the likes of which you've never experienced. You have seconds to identify the most salient features of your 3D shape, and a few seconds more to get it into position, or fail and start the whole level over again. There are boosters, of course, to give you more time or more rotation or unscrew the pooch if you fail mid-level, but you're not going to use those. Let's be real here. You want the challenge, and this game will deliver. Plus there's achievements!
