Created: October 17, 2020

Lightmatter

A satisfying first-person puzzle game. It relies on very few mechanics to create a challenging variety of puzzles. Though a handful are a bit tedious, most involve an "a ha!" moment when you figure out the solution. There is almost no "thinking outside the box" trickery, just straightforward unpacking of a problem based on what you see in front of you.

The art direction didn't impress me very much. I guess there was an effort to appear distinct and cool, but I found the line-art style and pale palette to be rather boring.

The story is cliché and very predictable, but it does the job. Note that this game does presume to be part of the Portal (and thus Half Life) universe via some very direct references, apparently with the blessing of the Portal developers. But, though I enjoyed this game, it is very far from being as good as Portal!

Bottom line: probably not the best of the many Portal clones I've played, but a good puzzle game nonetheless.

The only real complaint I have is about stability: I experienced a few crashes. In one case, I lost some progress.