Superliminal is the 4th selection of the UUGPGC! Completion target is 2/28/22! Spoilers are now open

EDIT: Spoiler discussion of Superliminal is now open. Say whatever you want unmarked in the comments.

Post before edits below:

Welcome to the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club. Our fourth game is Superliminal. The target completion date is February 28, 2022.

We ask that until that date you use the forum software to mark any spoilers, either story based or mechanical, in the discussion below. Ideally the bulk of the discussion will occur after February 28, but if you want to comment before then you are welcome to so long as the spoilers are marked. We ask that if you leave a comment before that date you also come back to the thread after it to read other people’s comments and respond to them, though of course we cannot force you to do so.

All are welcome to participate regardless of whether you have stated a preference to or not and there is absolutely no commitment. You do not have to finish the game to participate but please let us know if you have not.

You can find out more about the Unsanctioned Unofficial Game Pass Game Club or suggest future games for it here.

What is Superliminal?

It is a 3D puzzle game based primarily on manipulating objects and using perspective to solve puzzles and advance through the levels. It resembles Portal in a number of ways, including the absurd sense of humor and clever puzzle design.

How long is Superliminal?

How Long to Beat lists its single player portion as 2.5 hours long, but a multiplayer portion has also been added in a later update.

Once more into the puzzle breach, friends!

I played about an hour last night, and I've been digging it for the most part. The puzzles are relatively simple with some occasional complexity. It's fun poking around at a space to figure out the limits of what you can do, so I've discovered a few secrets so far. Two things I dislike about it: first, the controls don't feel great. There's a pretty poor response rate even on a Series X, which becomes highly annoying when I'm trying to position something semi-precisely. The other thing I dislike is the writing. Hoo BOY is this a game that sure has played both Portals. I was terrified the first time I saw a slice of cheese, because I thought it was cake at first glance, and that it would be a whole Thing. To me, the writing stands in sharp contrast to the moments of visual humor, like moving down a hallway and discovering the exit opening is actually a painted extrusion. It's a game that's as aware of its own strengths as it is blissfully ignorant of its weaknesses.

All that being said, I'm having more *fun* so far than the other two puzzlers we've done. I've got 2ish hours left based on time to play estimates, we'll see if the writing pays off in a way that makes me feel differently about it.

@allthedinos: I played this on PS4 last year and do not plan to re-play it for the club (it's not the kind of game I replay, and especially not under a year later) but I certainly agree that it's very obviously Portal influenced. I do think the writing gets better deeper in, and the gameplay does some interesting things too. I'll be interested to see how your opinion evolves as you finish it.

I'm also interested to see if other people get stuck in the same places that I did. You talk about poking at places in virtual spaces and this game definitely lets you do that but it also led me down some false paths that I was convinced would go somewhere but actually didn't.

If anyone is interested in setting up a time to do a multiplayer session I would be interested in that so please post here and we'll see if we can set one up. I haven't tried the multiplayer yet myself because it came out after I played the game but I'd be interested in trying it with some other duders.

Dang I'm bouncing off this one pretty hard. This turned out to be one of those games where I think I know the solution but can't properly get the items to do the thing I need them to do. The depth creating scale is just not something that my brain can easily grasp I guess. Maybe with time, but I'm only a couple levels in and just not enjoying myself much. And I can't help but unfairly compare it to the Stanley Parable (a game I loved) or Maquette (a game I hated).

There's still some time for it to click with me, but as it stands I might just wait and see what others think of it before I uninstall it.

Spoiler discussion is now open.

I posted about this game back when I played it so I don't have that much to add now.

I liked most of the puzzle aspects of the game though I agree that it can be too finnicky. It's also much more open than Portal (in that you can do more different things) so I got stuck a few times, most notably when I kept trying to go into a little bar you saw a model of on a desk and you could shrink down and get in there and it was fully modeled but there wasn't anything to actually do so I spent way too much time trying to progress from there.

The writing is obviously not at Portal quality and while there were some good lines and moments I found it too predictable and a little cheesy, but Portal is one of the best written games in history so it's an unfair bar. It's pretty well written for an indie puzzle game and they did a lot to make memorable set pieces with relatively simple graphics.

Superliminal isn't one of my favorite games but I think it's pretty good and I'm surprised there wasn't more positive discussion of it in this thread.

Did people not play it? Are they burned out on puzzle games? Remember that voting is still open for the next game for a day or so so if you'd prefer a different genre don't forget to vote!

Disclaimer: I got super stuck (in a storage room, there are planks i cannot remove, only think I can grab is a red exit light. Nothing i tried worked and i kind of burned my will to continue so i gave up.)

One of my problems with Superliminal is that in one room i can interact with something and a couple rooms later i suddenly cannot. With the same object! It doesn't have a solid set of rules. And that is a big pet peeve of mine, especially in puzzle games.

With that said i still enjoyed what i played. It has quite a lot of small 'whoa' moments, which kept me wanting to see more. Even though controls are very finicky on a controller and console version is locked to 30 fps. These days we can play almost everything on new gen at silky smooth 60 fps so going to half of that is so much more painful.

Ultimately though, i think it's too much like Portal if that makes sense. Like even the writing is arguably going for the same thing. And the game lacks personality as a result in my opinion.

Playing it made me think about replaying The Turing Test lol (Absolutely awesome portal-like game, more original even though it looks very similar to Valve's games in appearance. Highly recommended!)

I played it last year. I remember stumbling into a lot of solutions; some puzzles were beaten in ways I think were unintended and for others I accidentally got through them without actually figuring anything out. I also remember spending a lot of time searching for easter eggs that mostly weren't there.

I liked the game overall, but apart from some impressive uses of its gimmick, I don't think it's a stellar example in the genre.

In general I think the game is pretty great! Each level sticks around for just long enough and the themes and mechanics switch up enough each level to keep it interesting while still revolving around the same basic concept. There's some really smart elements of puzzle design and stretching the limits of what's possible with the systems to reach hidden areas or just out-of-the-way places was really fun.

The writing is...good enough and does hit a nice hopeful note right at the end which rounds off the experience quite nicely.

Similar to @donutello the one minor gripe I had was I found it very annoying in spots to pick out what elements were interactable, not quite at the level of a pixel hunt but an annoyance nonetheless.

Overall it was a thoroughly pleasant experience. It's not going to be in my all time list but it was a fun puzzler that was paced pretty perfectly and didn't overstay its welcome.

@bigsocrates: yeah I think the low input on this one could be a number of things that you mentioned. Our choice ended up being an old puzzle game and the time to play it was during two hotly anticipated releases. I assumed certain games weren't gonna always pull everyone, but hopefully Infernax is a game a lot of people hop on since it already has some positive chatter.