I didn’t hear a thing about Quantum Conundrum until I had shown up for Square Enix’s press event at PAX East. I didn’t think much of the game until I sat down and played it and it ended up being a really pleasant surprise. The game is a first person puzzle game in the vein of Portal, which is not surprising because one of the original lead designers of Portal designed QC. You play as a 12 year old boy visiting his kooky uncle who is a scientist. You explore the uncle’s mansion and discover a special glove that can change dimensions, each dimension effects the surrounding environment. For example, if there is a heavy object that you can’t pick up then you use the glove to switch to the “Fluffy dimension” which turns everything light as a feather. If you have to place an object on a floor panel to open a door but the object is too light then you can switch to the “Heavy dimension” which turns everything into lead and makes everything very heavy. The glove can also slow down time as well as reverse gravity. Using all these dynamics you have to navigate through different parts of the mansion to uncover the cause of your uncle’s disappearance. I played for about 15 minutes and got a good feel for the game and all the different ways the dimension shifting glove could be used. As I mentioned it’s very Portal-like so I was able to get a hang of the controls pretty quickly and I can say that it is about as fun and challenging as Portal. I’m looking forward to checking out this game when it hits the PSN/XBOX Marketplace/PC this year.
