Thank you Square-Enix for sending us this game to review!

Whether your uncle likes it or not your mother drops you off at his manor every year.  You’re obviously not wanted or welcome there.   In fact, he’s not really close with any family members since he is dedicated to his scientific research.  This visit is somewhat different though; your uncle (Professor Fitz Quadwrangle) is trapped in an alternate dimension and needs your help to bring him back.

Rescuing him will be no simple task as his manor is filled with various traps and inventions.  There are books, furniture, lethal and nonlethal lasers, and deadly chemicals everywhere.   To make matters worse, the power is out and you have to restart three generators to free him.

All hope is not lost since you can use your uncle’s IDS (interdimensional shift device) glove.   With this glove and proper batteries you can shift between four dimensions.  The dimensions are:

Fluffy: This makes heavy objects light and allows you to carry/move safes and furniture

Heavy:  The opposite of fluffy and turns cardboard boxes into steel boxes

Time:  This slows down time and allows you to jump onto or avoid fast moving objects

Gravity: Reverses gravity and causes objects to float, watch your head!

The game starts you off slowly and you don’t have access to all of the dimensions right away.  In order for the dimensions to work you have to collect the required batteries at the start of each level.  You’ll rarely find the batteries just lying around as they usually require solving a simple puzzle to retrieve them.  For example, a battery may be behind a windowed room.  In order to access it you’ll have to shift into fluffy dimension, throw a safe at the window and quickly shift out of fluffy dimension before it hits the glass to break it.

Once you have acquired the batteries, your next task is to figure out how to get out of the current room you’re in.  Progressing through the manor typically involves activating switches and pulling levers to unlock the doors. Placing safes on push button triggers may remind you of Portal which should come as no surprise since one of its main developers left Valve to work for Airtight Games.     

Instead of GLaDOS taunting you’ll hear your unimpressed uncle offering you backhanded compliments on your progress.  The dialogue is great and the voice acting is done by John de Lancie who is famous for his role as Q in Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The background music is fun to listen to and is very fitting for this game.  If you buy the season pass version of Quantum Conundrum ($20) you will get the soundtrack as well as two future DLCs.     

Like many Steam games, Quantum Conundrum offers various achievements and cloud saves.  It’s nice to have the option to play this game seamlessly on my laptop and desktop.  The only feature I miss is the ability to quick save.  The game automatically saves when you start a new level and there are checkpoint saves as you progress through it.  However, if you quit before completing the level, you will have to resume from the beginning and not from your last check point.

 Other than the lack of quick saves my only other complaint with Quantum Conundrum is the length of the gameplay.  Now granted the length is IQ dependant but it’s pretty safe to say that there’s less than ten hours of gameplay here.  Once you beat the game you can go back and improve upon the length of time you took or how many shifts you made (the game keeps track of your stats).  There are also hidden blueprints scattered across that unlock secret levels that you can play through as well.  The only other option is to sit back and to wait for some DLC to arrive, and it will.  In fact, I look forward to it.

Quantum Conundrum is a well polished game that runs off of the Unreal engine.  The graphics are colorful and detailed.  I highly recommend reading the book titles and looking at the paintings in different dimensions.  There’s plenty of humor here between those and the level names.  One of my favorites is “I saw the sine”.  Physics are a big part of this game and it excels in this area as well.

I’m pleased to say that this game is very family friendly.  In fact, my kids loved watching and cheering me on as I played.  The whole family pitched in with ideas on how to get past certain levels.  (Couch surfing level I’m looking at you). 

For $15-20 you get a decent amount of mind bending entertainment.  You’ll feel really great when you solve a level on your own.  I often overthought things and facepalmed when I really saw how simple the solution was.    I had trouble with a couple of the levels and found youtube videos out there to point me in the right direction.  If you’re a fan of the Portal series or enjoy puzzle games, you’ll enjoy Quantum Conundrum.