Antichamber

I walked past a man in a pink suit several times at PAX East. Every time I had walked by, I noticed there was always something really bizarre happening on the screen behind him. Hallways changing, perspectives shifting, turning around and moving into a room you weren't in before - it was impressive, but a little daunting. I never played the game for fear of being "too dumb," but found myself watching it many times.

When I found out the game was released on Steam, I decided to give it a whirl. I was not expecting to enjoy spending 4 straight hours plowing through it, and being blown away by how much fun it was to be legitimately challenged by a game. I never felt "too dumb" like I previously feared. Instead I constantly found myself commenting on how clever the game was, and silently applauding its creator, Alexander Bruce.

Going in, I had no idea that there was even a gun involved with this game. I thought all of it was traversal puzzles in a non-euclidean environment, so when the revelation that you could interact with the environment hit me, I was a very excited Canadian. Largely, the puzzles are a lot of fun to make your way through, and are always satisfying when you see them through to the end.

As a musician, I feel compelled to comment on the sound design & soundtrack. Though it is fairly spartan, I did really enjoy the use of realtime DSP to help evoke where individual sounds were being emanated from. It is fairly clever, and not something I was really expecting out of a 1-man (give or take) indie game. Again, another triumph.

I've said a lot about what is really fantastic in Antichamber, and I adore the game; but I do not believe it is perfect. I had some trouble with the way the game attempted to convey its systems to you. There were a few moments where I was left banging my head against the wall because I could not possibly progress any further without understanding what to do. It wasn't until I had looked at a few videos of people playing that I understood the concept that the game wanted from me (specifically the "you can always grow more" one) and felt that it never really made its importance clear enough.

I also feel as though it was really significant that the game has areas that are seemingly useless. Considering how absolutely everything ties together except for the "under construction" room, and the pink blocks, it is really disappointing to know that those things even exist within the world if they are not accomplishing anything. With that being said, I will definitely be playing again once they are implemented.

Lastly, $20 is quite a difficult sell, in my opinion. If this game was $15, I would have absolutely no problem recommending it to you; but at $20, it is extremely divisive. Where I had a great time, (barring a few frustrating moments) it is entirely possible that you will get bored of it within an hour and never see most of the game.

Though Antichamber is largely a success, I think you should wait until the game goes on sale before jumping in.