"I pay, you pay", this sentence is a joke about the "Red Bull" who sponsors various extreme sports reality shows. It is said that art comes from life, some game manufacturers do not know whether they have been affected by this kind of atmosphere, and there is no shortage of game works on the market with the theme of "I pay for it, you give your life".
"Attractio" is a puzzle game with such a theme, this work from mexican studio GameCoder is very creative, and has a strong "portal" visual sense, players will face one after another confined space puzzle room, manipulate the mechanism, move blocks, overcome terrain obstacles, and use their brains to solve the puzzles that are gradually heating up.
The game's story is set in the distant future, with three protagonists from different backgrounds risking their lives to participate in a dangerous and deadly "reality show" in order to win the grand prize, and the stage is a puzzle room full of various death traps. Players will take turns to maneuver the three characters to solve puzzles one after another, each character has different abilities, mia wearing gravity boots can change her gravity and walk freely on the ceiling.
The puzzle game solves puzzles in a "manipulation of gravity" approach, in which players will be able to manipulate the gravity of objects or themselves, change the gravity of blocks to fly upwards to touch the switches on the ceiling, or let themselves walk on the ceiling to cross the chasm on the ground. The design of the puzzles is based on gravity, which is very unique in the puzzle solving experience, challenging the player's spatial thinking.
Keir, who holds a gravity gun, can change the gravitational direction of the block, while Dalek doesn't start with any props, relying only on his instincts and reactions. In the later stages, you can even control 2 characters at a time, and the self-help and cooperative gameplay will raise the puzzle challenge to a higher level. However, there can only be one winner in the end.
A one-man brain challenge
The artificial environment located on the space station, after breaking away from the shackles of the planet, the rules of gravity are completely under human control. The design with "gravity" as the backbone of the puzzle is very innovative, and the mental challenge brought by this game is very different from other puzzle games, testing the player's sense of space and physical prediction.
The puzzle type is a very authentic "brain type", the puzzle elements will be very clearly presented in front of the player's eyes at the beginning, after the rules of the game are granted to the player, the player needs to just rack their brains, there will be no "observation" puzzle game like the hidden switch or clueless mechanism. The difficulty of the puzzles is gradual, step by step to let the player figure out the puzzle tricks, with light and melodious music, it is very enjoyable.
However, unfortunately, the game's "warm-up period" design is a bit too long, almost half of the levels, compressing the space for challenging puzzles, for players seeking difficult puzzles, just began to enjoy the interesting brain challenge, but the game has passed most of the half or even near the end, feeling unfinished.
Step-by-step, varied puzzle-solving challenges
Players will take turns controlling these three challengers, the initial control of TheDalek does not have any props, the puzzle is relatively simple, the purpose is to familiarize the player with the environment first, and soon it will be Mia's turn, wearing gravity boots to change their gravity, there is no longer a difference between up and down, and it is easy to jump up to the ceiling to overcome various terrain obstacles.
Then it is Keir's turn to hold the gravity gun, you can remotely change the gravity direction of the block, up, down, left, right, front, back, six directions at will, pull the distant block over, or a combination of block collision at a distance, creating the opportunity to press the switch or stepping stone. In the middle of the operation, The Dalek can be used as a gravity boot and a gravity gun to face more complex puzzles.
The most interesting is the later stage, while manipulating the bridge between Mia and Keir, the player can control two characters at a time, embodying the so-called "self-two cooperation", for example, using Mia's cross-domain terrain barrier to obtain blocks, and then switching Keir's remote manipulation blocks. Properly assigning the work of gravity boots and gravity guns, and allowing two people to reach the exit at the same time, self-cooperation is the most interesting and challenging part of this work, but unfortunately, when the challenge peaks, it stops abruptly, which makes me feel unfinished.
Think carefully and execute accurately
In addition to brain-thinking, Attractio also has a certain action component, and sometimes even if a solution is thought of, it will require delicate or precise action execution, such as catching a block that flies halfway, jumping in the blink of an eye, or quickly switching to another character after throwing a block out.
Although it is still mostly brain-moving, it may still be unpleasant for players who have worked hard. Therefore, this game introduces another ability - the "slow motion effect", or bullet time. When the player unleashes the time-slowing effect, the fast-flying square suddenly resembles a turtle and can be caught in a hurry. Let the actionability of this game not greatly damage the essence of a puzzle game. It's just that the action of the last two levels is still too strong, and it is up to you whether it is good or bad.
Ointment
There are three more regrettable places in this work, the first is that the portrayal of the plot is relatively insufficient, and the presentation and tension are very flat. Again, although the picture texture is good, but the optimization is quite poor, in a scene that is all indoor space, occasionally the frame will drop, fortunately for the puzzle game high frame rate is not so important, but still the smooth experience is discounted. Finally, the gravity theme is not played to the fullest.
After playing this game, I found that this is a puzzle theme with unlimited potential, but unfortunately, most of this work is only on the gravity block, the puzzle is nothing more than using the block pressure switch or as a stepping stone, gravity boots can only switch up and down, can not walk on the wall. However, for the first-time attempt, the diversity of gravity puzzles is actually enough, and the first game is too complicated to make the player overwhelmed.
summary
"Attractio" this puzzle sketch, overall is quite a good masterpiece, although the plot is flat, the optimization is not top-notch, but the gravity theme of the puzzle is very novel, should be the first attempt in the current first-person puzzle game, can bring a different puzzle fun.
And the unexpected popularity of this work is very, very low, and it can be said that it is a good game that is seriously underestimated by the market. Therefore, the author highly recommends it to players who like puzzle games and do not let good works be buried.