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PS4 Game Review


Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut

 

Format: PS4
Publisher: Grip Games
Developer: Grip Games
RRP: £7.99
Age Restrictions: 3+
Release Date: 22 July 2015


Like most people I love puzzle games, especially those clever ones which present you with a seemingly simple set of rules for gameplay and then frustrate you when the simple becomes difficult.

Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut ('Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion') is such a game, heralding from an independent developer in Prague, it presents a simple but entertaining concept.

Review imageYou find yourself waking up in a spaceship, the only thing you can see is your hands resplendent with little sucker like lights. Your mission is a bit vague, but we're guessing that you’re trying to get out of there. While the only thing that you can see is your gloves there is an unhelpful voice over confirming that you're alive and hoping that you have not forgotten your skill... Then you're on your own.

The ship is made up of mostly white bricks and quick experimentation confirms that your hands can manipulate your environment and that they have no effect on non-coloured blocks.

Your first mission is to get out of the room, which is fairly easy as the first part just requires you to walk to the appropriate part of the gaming area. Eventually you come across your first red brick, discovering that this can be pulled and retracted blue cubes once depressed can be used to launch you into the air and gold will allow you to create ladders.

Review imageOf course this is the game at its simplest. As it progresses you have more options and more combinations of switches, balls and bricks to allow you to move, you and objects, within the game area, The only restriction your character has is that he/she can only jump the height of one block, so the manipulation of the coloured blocks become paramount. The interface is very intuitive so no real instructions are requires, the player just has to interact with the environment to understand what each of the elements is capable of.

It’s hard not to compare the game to Portal, both rely on logic and problem solving, but Q.U.B.E., is a game lacking context. With little to no story to support what you are doing the only reason to continue is the gamer's desire to solve the puzzles. The ambient music is likewise ill defined. Pleasant as it undoubtedly is, it does not really convey to the player what mood, other than mysterious, it is trying to set. I suppose that a game which is devoid of any real threat must be difficult to compose for.

Given its price, Q.U.B.E., is a great little puzzler, although once completed there may seem little reason to replay it. That said the Director’s Cut does come with a number of bonuses. For a start if you buy it for the PS4, you get to download it free to your PS3. The cut also adds new levels, time trials and a leader board, which might just get you playing more than once.

6

Charles Packer

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