I just finished this yesterday. Here are my thoughts.

[Vitamin Ex]

The first half of the game is great. It is a very unique idea and the execution is spot on. The second half of the game however is none of those things. I felt like the puzzles took a hard stop and the game turned into a walking simulator.

I'm not saying it's a bad game, it's just not as good as it looked and as good as I was hoping it would be. The puzzles are also pretty easy (like a 3/10 on difficulty) and the game is short.

This is a game you're going to want to get on -50%+ discount.

[deadering]

Originally posted by Vitamin Ex:

The first half of the game is great. It is a very unique idea and the execution is spot on. The second half of the game however is none of those things. I felt like the puzzles took a hard stop and the game turned into a walking simulator.

I'm not saying it's a bad game, it's just not as good as it looked and as good as I was hoping it would be. The puzzles are also pretty easy (like a 3/10 on difficulty) and the game is short.

This is a game you're going to want to get on -50%+ discount.

I agree. This feels like they had the one good idea for the novelty of the perspective puzzles but tried to make an entire game around the concept, which didn't really hold up for very long. The game is already very short but honestly I felt what little it had to offer already lasted too long.

I liked the concept and theme but feels like wasted potential. Wish they would have came up with some other concepts to fit with the dream concept. With some different puzzles throughout to break up the second half I feel it would have been much more solid.

[mr.D4RK]

This was exactly my thoughts of this game. At first it feels like Portal meets Stanley Parable - same AI being cynical jokes and silly Doctor messages, testing enviroment, perception tricks and overall absurity of the things.

Problem is that the game had like 2-3 ideas throughout it length and...it was nice ideas but as soon as novelty wears off it quickly become too repetitive. If you remember Portal - every level was harder then previous one, they added new mechanics, throwed them at you, combined them together, that was fun. Come on, it's a dream, you can do all kinds of crazy stuff, disregard physics, play with the player's mind, create impossible enviroments like infinite ladders, change gravity...

But instead of keeping "science gone wrong" feeling they are moving into philosophy/psychology and ...jesus this is just bad. Your gameplay at last stages does not compliment the idea of "looking at a problem on a different angle", it's lust pixelhunting when you runnning around the room and frantically clicking everything and run into any wall in hope to realise where to go next - and the puzzles are not even hard. And your narrative is not only lower than Stanley parable level, it's even lower than Portal. How the hell you managed to screw up narrative if you had intention to end game on a philosophical note?!

IMO they should've ended the game at the point before black and white enviroment. It would be even shorter but it would spare me their far-fetched philosophy at the end.

[Nameless]

Nah. You're all smoking crack. The puzzles aren't too easy, they are just right. Puzzles should be intuitive and should be solvable by breaking down your environment. You shouldn't have to rely on walkthroughs or Youtube videos in order to complete a section. I think the hardest puzzle was the one with the apples that multiply and there's a fan and a switch at the top of a ramp. Also the one where you have to manipulate the blow-up castle to get on top of the platform/door at the top of the room. And then the puzzle that is like two doors where you (I assume, how I did it) have to stack them on each other so that you enter in bottom door and come out top door. All the puzzles seem to only take just a bit of playing around with your environment. So many of these types of games you have NO CLUE what they want you to do. Ones that come to mind are Qube 2 and The Turing Test

I think Superliminal is the best of its class since the original Portal and Portal 2. I give this game a 10/10. My only complaint is that it's too short.

[gabrielcarvfer]

Agree with first 3 comments. Kinda fun tho. Filament is way better if you really are into puzzles.

[Nameless]

Originally posted by gabrielcarvfer:

Agree with first 3 comments.

Just tell me you don't like my comment and be done, bro.

[Y4F9]

I've been itching to share my disappointment for months now from when I bought it on the Epic Game Store. The concept to me was amazing. So hyped from the trailer and screenshots. Loved the art style. You could argue my expectations were too high but if you have actually played through the whole game your realize it's not a nice, well put together package. Again, the concept is fantastic. But the writing was boring/weak. I'm not saying you need a Portal level of storytelling but do it well or don't do it at all (The Witness for example). A game doesn't have to have a story. But when you half ass it... just ends up getting in the way a bit of how much you're enjoying the game. Another recent puzzle game I played, this one had by far the worst story I've ever played in a game. The Swapper it's called. Puzzles are fantastic. But as a whole package, the story took away from the finished product.

Anyway, Superliminal just felt like a tech demo. These guys were sitting on such a game changing mechanic and they released too soon. Ran out of money to develop the project further? Vision was too small? Too few staff to make the game have more depth? All questions I asked myself as I went further along. I'm sounding really critical only because I wanted this game to be so much more. To be fair, I did still enjoy it.

With all that said, everyone should check out another game that is doing this concept. And hopefully this studio does a better job of it. It's called Maquette. Check it out on Steam. Releaseing 2021. Got it wishlisted. I'm super hopeful as they have Annapurna Interactive as the publisher if that makes a difference at all. Their lineup of games is impressive. Graceful Decay the developer I can't find anything previously made by them on Steam.