Q.U.B.E and Q.U.B.E 2

Hands up who likes Portal? I imagine everyone said yes, if you didn't either go away and play it or just go away. As a pre-warning, I played these games about a month apart, which is now several months ago, so there is a good chance I'll get elements of the 2 games mixed up.

So, as implied with the opening line, this is a first person puzzle game, clearly inspired by portal, not that I'm saying that every first person puzzle game has to be inspired by it, but with the talking AI, the mystery, the white areas and run down behind the walls (specifically In Q.U.B.E 1), just Iike quantum conundrum, in fact maybe even more so, this comes straight from Portal.

The way the puzzles work here though is that you can fill spaces with different types of cube. a bouncy one, one that extends, one that drops a cube you can move (I think there might be another one in 2, but a very brief google wont resolve my querie). With these simple mechanics you have to figure out puzzles, ranging from simple to difficult, long, infuriating and for the most part, well crafted. There really is some fantastic design in these puzzles, as there must be in any puzzle game, specifically for a first person puzzle game in this style, which is a reason that the Turing test (The game) was such a disappointment to me (not that it was terrible, but as far as first person puzzlers go it was disappointingly mediocre).

Both play pretty much the same and they're both set in a tight space (thankfully linear games do still exist (dear game developers, please make 95% of your games linear first person games, thanks, love Andy (local multiplayer is also acceptable))) but the first game really feels tight, as you try and get you're way through a space ship (the original premise of the first game is like deep impact/ Armageddon) that has the all white walls, padded c(h)ell feel that worked so well for portal that I eluded to earlier, whereas the second has much more of an outside feel (see picture above) with plants, the moon, rocks, washing lines, BBQ's, Hot tubs, some of those heaters you get in pub gardens and grass (some of those may have been made up).
Both games have interesting plots, both with twists and even though they're no Portal, and nor are they voiced by John Delancie (Q) as a cat, they are interesting enough to keep you invested in what is happening, rather than it being a simple game of challenge rooms.

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This last act of days gone is taking forever, no I don't want to clear another camp!