Worth Seeing, Worth Playing, But Not Great
Antichamber is not a game, it's an experimental fever dream where you just stumble from puzzle to puzzle. Or at first that's how it feels because of the mindfuckish nature of the game. You can't trust anything, not doors, walls, or the steps you're taking. Since everything around you is constantly changing you're left there wondering if you really are moving in the enviroment or is it the environment that is moving around you and while at it, breaking laws of physics like they aren't even supposed to be there.
The raw, plain, and ugly level design is complimented with an equally obnoxious color scheme and together they come into play to add in to the insanity factor. The visual style supplements this eccentric venture in a good and a bad way. It leaves me indifferent as it is unpleasant as it is weird but at the same time visuals create this wonderful feeling that this place isn't supposed to exist, even when it does.
After spending a good while trapped to this labyrinth with no entrances or exits you start to understand how the world revolves around you. The triggers and logic behind these, at first seemingly illogical, mind-benders start to unravel and you find yourself turning from the slave to the master. This is also the point where you actually realize there is a game inside this nonentity. The illusion of a world with unimaginable wonders crumbles as the guns come into play more and more and you get pulled down to a grounded land with no miracles or mystery.
Greatest flaw in here comes from the greatest achievement: The world isn't magical enough to keep the illusion of different reality going on from beginning to end. After wandering around the maze you start to get frustrated as there are doors which won't open because you don't have the right gun yet. Even if there exists some color coding to inform what puzzles you can and cannot solve yet I can't help the feeling that this could've executed better. Throw in some minimalistic story where your character would abstractly grow and with that indicate which routes are for you to walk through and which aren't. The fact that this actually is a maze with influences from metroidvania is a bit dissappointing as well. A road, a twisty fucking road, but a road nonetheless could've been potentially a better way to walk through this adventure.
Antichamber is really a strange journey through an unimaginable world. Streamlining some of the edges off could've made this trip more consistant and a bit more special. Even with the complaints, this is a game worth experiencing.
