Quantum Conundrum casts you as the young lad who is surprisingly dumped on an uncle for the afternoon. Of course, to make things interesting, that uncle is a, for lack of a term that would imply the same level of ingenuity without evil intent or insanity, mad scientist. While on your way through the manor to see him and his latest invention, a terrible accident occurs, and suddenly it is up to you to turn the power back on and find your uncle, who has no idea where he is.
Such is the setting behind the game. To get the power back
up and running you'll have to struggle your way through three wings of the
manor, past all manner of puzzles, and get the generators running. Of course
nothing is simple, or in the case of this particular house, safe. You'll have to
ride flying furniture, avoid lasers, and gain a bit of help from the loveable
Ike, short for interdimensional kinetic entity. Sounds like the perfect
adventure for a kid.
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| I don't know about you, but I'm automatically suspicious about anything that cute. |
To accomplish your goal you'll need to learn to control up
to four different dimensions, utilizing the idiosyncrasies each maintains.
Those four dimensions are heavy, fluffy, slow, and reverse gravity. There is
also, and this can be the key to a puzzle, the normal dimension, which really
brings the total to five.
Objects behave differently in each dimension. Fluffy makes
objects lighter, so you are suddenly able to pick up heavy things like safes or
sofas. Heavy makes objects denser, such that they cannot be destroyed by lasers
or turns light objects like boxes into something sufficiently heavy enough to
activate switches. Slow slows down time, while reverse gravity is self
explanatory. Certain objects, yourself included, remain immune to dimensional shifts,
so you don't go flying when reverse gravity is activated or move slowly in
slow. You'll need to gain a certain mastery of each dimension, and understand
how they can be used together to create interesting results, such as using
fluffy to pick up a sofa and throw it into the air, switching immediately to
slow so that you have ample time to jump on top of it, and then toggling
reverse gravity on and off so it floats through the air, but making sure to
turn heavy on right before you both head through a laser field that would
otherwise vaporize your ride, and you.
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| That's pretty much the solution here, minus the fluffy. |
The puzzles themselves, and indeed the layout of the game,
are structured in such a way that solutions really build off of one another, as
you'll take the principles learned earlier and apply them, with the added
twists the game throws at you, to later puzzles. For example, there are three
wings to the manor. During the first wing you only have access to Fluffy and
Heavy, while the second wing adds in Slow, and the final adds in Reverse
Gravity, giving you time to really grasp the concepts you'll need before you
advance. In that sense, the game is a success; it felt less like a random array
of testing chambers, and more a contiguous experience, one in which I only once
found myself stumped, and that was simply because I didn't realize I could move
a key object around.
An interesting modulator to the game are a few of the
mechanics I'll cover now. You control dimensions via an IDS glove, which stands
for interdimensional shift device, which should really be ISD if you want to
get your acronyms correct, but I digress. However, the glove is only the remote
control, and not what actually generates the shifts. To do that, you'll need to
find an IDS battery for a particular dimensions, and plug it into the
receptacle that runs that area. This results in a few puzzles where you must
swap out one battery for another due to limits on the receptacle, or one
particularly good puzzle where you must decide on which battery you would like
to start solving the puzzle with, while the other three are whisked away. Sometimes
you don't have control over the dimensions at all, because instead of the
battery being plugged into a terminal you control with the glove, they are tied
to a button that is pushed by a drinking bird, creating a timer effect.
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| I will reference this in the second sentence of the next paragraph. |
Some other things about the ambiance the game sets forth. The
art style is fitting of the lighter nature of the game, and even though you
can, and most likely will, die, those deaths result in humorous little tidbits
to cheer you up, such as "Thing # 49 you will never experience: Being
better at this sort of thing than you are right now. Actually, being better at
absolutely anything than you are RIGHT NOW. Or, were." which is typical of
the type of humor that's present in the game, which includes artwork that looks
different in each dimension. Your uncle acts as a helpful guide, alternating
between funny stories and giving you hints should you take too long with a
particular puzzle, though they didn't strike me as being particularly hard,
which probably makes this game even more approachable.
Now, the comparison/question that is on everyone's mind:
this game vs. Portal, which pretty much defines the whole first person platform
puzzler genre right now. The game is the result of an idea by one Kim Swift,
who was a lead designer for Portal, which it self was a result of an earlier
project she had been a part of. But just because the same person occupied a key
position in both games doesn't mean Quantum Conundrum is a copy of Portal.
There are some similarities: both are puzzle platformers, there is a main
character you interact with, though you are a silent protagonist in each game,
and then there is the whole physics is the answer part, but that's where the
similarities end. While Portal is more about twitch reactions in many puzzles,
expertly placing a few portals while flying around, Quantum Conundrum is more
about timing and clever use of different dimensions. You'll be quickly entering
Slow so you can hop from one flying piece of furniture to the other, instead of
tricking a rocket launcher to destroy an obstacle. Portal is a game about
struggle, while Quantum Conundrum is more about hope, and you can see that in
everything from the art to the relationships you have with other characters -
Portal is oppressive and sterile, with enemies that are trying to kill you and
an antagonist that wants nothing more than for you to fail; Quantum Conundrum
is happy and humorous, set in the reassuring environment of the family home,
with characters that help you and guide you along the way. And if it counts for
anything, which, if you're reading this, I hope it does, I actually enjoyed
Quantum Conundrum more than I did Portal 2, though the original still rules the
genre for me.
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| You're not going to turn slow motion falling safes into a bridge in Portal. |
Overall, Quantum Conundrum is a very good game, and if you're
into this genre, I do recommend it. Like all other games in this category, it
is a bit on the short side, requiring just over 6 hours to complete, though
there are challenges, such as beating levels without dying or within a certain
number of shifts. Still, I had a good time playing the game, and currently have
the two DLCs on my wishlist. I worked out a trade deal for the game, but I have
seen it just under $9. I'd say spend at least $10 on this, because it is a
quality game - 8 out of 10.
So, the final breakdown:
Score: 8/10
Suggested Price: $10+
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