A Light Puzzle Snack
Time to Finish: 2.5 hrs.
Most Time Spent on Single Puzzle: 10 min.
What I'd Pay: $10
Steam Price (1/12/12): $15
Q.U.B.E. feels like a game the Portal team would hammer out in a month. It's stylish first-person puzzler with a bare-bones story hinted at by the environment and quite a few rough edges, yet it managed to tax my brain without frustrating me into quitting it for the night.
The game's puzzles revolves around blocks and the special gloves you use to manipulate them. Blocks' behavior is determined by their color, which stands in stark contrast to the white/gray environment. You spend the first half of the game learning the basics, while the second half introduces additional elements like lightbeams and magnets. While you use the basic blocks throughout the game to good effect, about half of the additional elements are only focused on for 1 Sector then ignored for the rest of the game. However, it still felt like the game had a good steady difficulty curve and none of the mechanics wore out their welcome. Precise timing was required for a few of the puzzles, but never for multiple actions in a row, and the Rewind blocks made it easy to restart most of the puzzles.
The graphics and music feel like Portal on a low-budget: the graphics imply sterile testing chambers, while the music is low-key and ambient. The stark colors make it easy to see where the moving parts of the puzzle are, while the block animations make the very corridors seem like living, breathing creatures; it's a haunting effect while you're traveling from one puzzle to the next. The story is minimalist, advanced solely by your surroundings without any narration or explanation. It provides enough motivation to finish the game, but no one will be talking about it afterwards.
What they will talk about is the obvious rough edges: the achievements that don't work and the black squares occasionally flicker on the screen when there's too much glowing white. That's a pity, because other than missing a few achievement points, nothing interfered with the gameplay or crashed the game. It's a pity that Q.U.B.E., although well-made, doesn't have anything that sticks out more than the missing Sector 3 achievement.
I would be happy with the light puzzle meal that is Q.U.B.E., except it feels a tad overpriced for a short and ultimately forgettable game. As is, I was satisfied buying it on sale and spending a few hours playing Portal's cheaper, younger brother.
