Short Sessions, Part 10

This is another post in my series about the odd games that I have decided not to complete, although I will at least try them out for up to an hour or two.

Magrunner: Dark Pulse

Developer: Frogwares | Released: 2013 | Genre: Puzzle, First Person

Another Portal clone, which I have completed a lot of by now. I usually like these well enough to complete them – however, this one rubbed me the wrong way.

It started in the usual training facility with room after room, wearing a glove for changing the polarization of magnetism. Boxes or platforms could attract or repel each other by applying the polarization – left mouse button for red and right mouse button for green.

The game didn’t hold your hand regarding the actual puzzles and I actually thought it was a little confusing at first. Some rules I had to figure out by myself, like how a box had to touch an electrical power sphere, or how a sliding strip with arrows was supposed to be used. Sometimes the room also increased the challenge in repellent ways such as e.g. putting a box in a nook where it wasn’t easy to spot.

I could see there was some charm in toggling the magnetism to pull or push in a certain rhythm and also strengthen the elevation by piling boxes near a platform and then polarize them. But somehow, it also felt like the game wasn’t always playing fair. Another room – so what is going to be tricky here?

A hotkey turned on magnetism fields – that felt like using a debug command.

To make matters worse, there was a lot of loading. After one or sometimes two rooms, I had to go back to a roomy elevator and listen to a scientist or a journalist babble while the next level was being prepared.

I have completed enough of these kind of games now to be a lot more picky. I’ve heard the last half of the game is pretty difficult and there will also be monsters. Thanks, but no thanks.

More games to come?

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