Superliminal is one of the coolest games of 2020 and probably one of the best first persom puzzle games ever made. Everything in Superliminal feels unique, from the simple minimalist visual style and the loading screens to the "think outside the box" puzzle design. And what's even better is that this uniqueness drives the entire story's point home.
Now let me explain it a little bit better. The whole premise of the game is to make you see things from a different perspective cause, as in real life, if you do the same thing over and over again or even react the same way, you will always end up with the same result. That's why you need to stop and think things over and again, as in real life, if you see the problems from another perspective in 99% of the cases, you will come up with a solution to overcome them.
That's beautifully and creatively displayed in Superliminal, where you need to tackle the puzzles from another angle in order to move forward. Often things might look complex and pretty much impossible, but if you think outside the box then the solution becomes really clear. For example, in order to reach the exit you need to climb a ledge, but you can't just directly jump there. OK, you see a box, pick it up and place it near the ledge and climb on it, but you still can't reach the ledge. So what do you do?
Well, you pick up the box again, but this time you don't drop it near the ledge, but you take a few steps back and now you drop it. Now when you walk to the box, the box is bigger since you changed your perspective and your perceive the box to be bigger. Jump on the box, reach the exit and that's puzzle one done.
I know, it's really really weird trying to explain how weird this unique game mechanic is, but you won't fully grasp how magical it feels unless you experience it yourself. In Superliminal, perception is, more than often, reality until it isn't. What I described is just one of many crazy and out there mechanics you need to understand, play around, and use to your advantage to move forward.
Another puzzle, which blew my mind, was one where there was a big room with a big incline towards the end and a button on the floor which needed an object on top to open the exit door. So, just pick an object, place it on the button and the door opens, right? Like the many puzzles in Portal where you need to place the companion cube on top? Easy.
Well, there are no object to pick up here. The only thing you can interact with is a big apple which when you try to pick it up, it just spawns a smaller apple in front of you ad infinitum. OK, so just keep spawning apples until you reach the button, easy. Well, in the room there's also a big fan which will blow away any of the apples that spawn. So, what the fu*k do you do?
After trying all sort of things and scratching your head for a little while, you remember you need to see things from a different perspective. So you go at the top of the incline near the button, move back until you see the big apple on top of the button, interact with the apple and a new smaller apple will spawn on top of the button. My mind was blown there and then!
This is just one of the many creative puzzles that will blow you away in Superliminal. Be ready to play around with more perspectives, graphical illusions and things that may or may not be there. Hats off to the crazy developers and designers that thought of these puzzles. I absolutely love this game and I believe that you will love it too. Go ahead and buy it. Thanks for reading!
Superliminal is available now on:PS4,Switch, Windows, Xbox One. This review is based on my experience playing the game on a PS4 Pro using a code provided by the publisher.
