Superliminal

ANATOMY OF A PUZZLE

Unlike Portal, environments are a little more open with you navigating your way through the dreams rather than having in-depth puzzle rooms.

That doesn’t make them any less clever or make you feel less rewarded for solving them.

Here’s an example of one of the puzzles you will encounter:

We enter a room with a massive Jenga set and a doorway at the top. We can’t grab any of the Jenga pieces, nor does there seem to be much else going on in the room.

On closer inspection, there seems to be a small table next to the giant stack, with a small fan on top. This could be useful.

By altering perspective so we can make the fan bigger, we can blow over the Jenga pile and make the door accessible!

Unfortunately, it just seems to lead to an empty windowed room with seemingly nothing interactable inside.

… except, wait! We can grab one of the windows in here and make it big enough to fit through!

This leads us inside the window, where we can enter the room that appears at the other side. Hurrah! Now we can reach the next area!

Since Portal released in 2007, imitators have been plentiful: quite a few of them have turned out to be great games, but not many reached the same heights as the puzzle masterpiece they are based on. The reason for that? In my humble opinion, I think a lot of it is down to the core mechanic of Portal being so damn interesting, and it really captured people’s imaginations. How appropriate then that Superliminal is not only inspired by an unused Portal concept, but it almost reaches the same heights of enjoyment too. Almost.

BEYOND YOUR WILDEST DREAMS
There isn’t really much of a story in Superliminal in all honesty: as a test subject in an experimental Dream Therapy program, you end up getting trapped within a cycle of recurring dreams unable to wake up. As your situation gets progressively worse, you rely on the guidance of Dr Glenn Pierce as he tries to help you via the radios scattered around the world. As you make your way through the increasing layers of your dream world, things start to get more surreal; it builds up quite a crescendo as it nears the end, but then loses all momentum in an underwhelmingly muted finale that left me feeling a little let down. It’s a tad disappointing considering the game sets you up for an interesting tale, but really the gameplay is the true star of the show.

PUT INTO PERSPECTIVE
As the game starts up, you are greeted with a blank screen with nothing other than directions on how to move using the analogue sticks. After testing that out, you quickly realise that it is not a static screen, and you are actually just really close to a wall in a sealed off room that contains nothing but a table and a contract. On signing the contract, it becomes apparent that the room has changed, and the wall with the instructions is now replaced with a doorway for you to proceed further. From the get-go, you are prepared to expect the unexpected – but the best is yet to come.

The main gimmick of the game revolves around the use of perspective to manipulate the environment around you. This is immediately apparent at the start when your route is blocked by a huge chess piece, which you can curiously pick up from afar … except now the piece isn’t so small: shifting your perspective so that it looks smaller from a distance will, in turn, change the object into that size. It works in reverse too: place that tiny object in your hand so that it appears to be on the floor in the distance, and then when you walk up to it you will find that it is now a giant object. It’s a clever trick and it is jaw-dropping every time you use it.

IS THIS SURREAL LIFE?
Altering the size of objects is the main bulk of the experience, but don’t expect it to be the sole focus. Each level contains an additional gimmick to add much needed variety to the central quirky mechanic. Early on you will encounter some neat little perspective puzzles that have you lining up paint to create the form of an object, which you can then pick up and use; a later level has you able to clone objects at the expense of being able to pick them up. Each level feels uniquely different, but they never seem to last very long; it’s a double edge sword since the short length of the stages leaves you wanting more, whilst also ensuring you never get tired of the level mechanics.

One thing to note is that the puzzles rarely feel particularly difficult throughout the game; they’re comparatively quite easy compared to the likes of Portal and other games in the genre. This leaves the game feeling a bit more like The Stanley Parable at times, but with perspective puzzles thrown in. Don’t let that fool you though, despite the simplicity of most of the puzzles, it doesn’t make them any less rewarding when you find that ‘aha!’ moment. Another thing that the game does particularly well is allowing for multiple ways to solve rooms; much like the portal mechanic, it’s a janky gimmick that is ripe for abusing by those with a crafty mind and people are usually rewarded for trying to break outside the box. With that being said, most puzzles usually have one intended solution and the game limits which objects you can actually interact with. It can feel a little restricting only being able to use certain objects, but it doesn’t lessen the fun.

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That being said, there are a couple of puzzles in the game that are far more difficult than anything else your will encounter, and may leave you scratching your head or clamouring for a walkthrough. One in particular involving an endless corridor and a walled off area had me wandering around in countless circles before it finally clicked. It’s not unsolvable, but it certainly requires more thought than the rest of the game. There are also some puzzles that can literally break the game and send the framerate to a near standstill. One level has a gimmick involving doorways and it’s very easy to mess up the puzzles and send the game to a crawl without even attempting to exploit it. The bouncy castle from the trailer in particular was problematic, until I realised that I was overthinking the puzzle. Luckily the game has frequent checkpoint saves, so you never lose much progress if you are forced to restart.

SIMPLIMINAL
You may have noticed that aesthetically the game is rather simple for the most part, and that is the case on the surface of things for a bulk of the game. However, when combined with the perspective-shifting mayhem, the game can look pretty damn impressive. It’s also always satisfying when the game tricks you with perspective into thinking the world is one way, when it actually isn’t; in particular, the end of the game contains some stunning surreal moments.

Much like the original Portal, Superliminal won’t take too long to beat; however, the game does contain a lot of hidden content for you to hunt for, such as: hidden chess pieces, blueprints, and constellation rooms, all of which can be extremely tricky to find. What’s more, additional achievements can be unlocked for doing various things, including beating the game in an extremely tight thirty minutes. Whether or not these will incentivise you into replaying is down to your own personal preference, but I will certainly dip back in to try and complete everything.