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- Toxic Games
- Toxic Games
- Toxic Games
- Toxic Games
Q.U.B.E.
Released On: Dec 17, 2011
69
7.4
All Platforms
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
69
38% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
62% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
69
38% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
62% Mixed
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
With an acceptable duration, some challenging puzzles and the ability to constantly surprise, Toxic Games has created a title with personality. It's a must have for any lover of the genre and a great way to enter the world of the puzzle for novices.
Q.U.B.E. it's a niche product that deserves the attention of all puzzle game addicts thanks to an original gameplay concept. There's no doubt about the fact it can't match the wonderful appearance and storyboard of Portal 2, but for 12 Euros on Steam you can be sure there's no point to complain about one of the most original puzzle games released in recent years.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 138 User Ratings
7.4
54% Positive
75 Ratings
75 Ratings
38% Mixed
53 Ratings
53 Ratings
7% Negative
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 138 User Ratings
7.4
54% Positive
75 Ratings
75 Ratings
38% Mixed
53 Ratings
53 Ratings
7% Negative
10 Ratings
10 Ratings
It is a puzzle game that I think is excellent because of the atmosphere it creates and the originality of its puzzles. The biggest problem it has is that they have recently added a story to it, which is totally absurd and I think it's a mistake because it's annoying, but it doesn't matter because its puzzles are extremely good, varied and fun.
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PC
This game was a lot of fun and really deserves more attention than it seems to have gotten. I've seen a lot of criticism heaped on it for its lack of story or lack of soundtrack, basically its minimalistic design, but I think people just compare it far, FAR too much to Portal.
Here's the thing: You are a nameless, faceless figure with an inexplicable ability to control blocks in your environment. Everything is black and white, with the occasional splash of color to indicate a piece of the room you can interface with. Red for spots you can extend or retract, blue for spots that act as launchers, and so on.
The puzzles are really quite clever and enjoyable, and the controls are simple. At no point did I feel like I didn't understand what I was doing or what I had to do; a bit of experimentation was needed to learn new mechanics as they appeared, but the minimalistic design and the simplicity of the mechanics you have to learn make your course very clear at all times. The game gives you all the pieces to solve the puzzle, you just have to figure out how they fit. It's perfect design in that respect, really.
As for the lack of story or dialogue or anything else, I think that actually enhances the experience. It's a puzzle game, there's nothing else to it than that. There's very clearly something going on in this world you're suddenly thrust into, but it's never clear what. Leaving the player with a question as to who they are or what they're doing is good design, in my opinion. It lets them wonder and try to answer any unanswered questions, and really creates a memorable experience.
Final recommendation? It's a great puzzle game. If you enjoy those, you'll like it. If you absolutely need story to explain why you're pushing blocks around, you'll be disappointed; but if you're willing to push blocks for the sake of it and test your cleverness for no reason than because you can, this is the perfect game for you.
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PC
It's difficult not to draw parallels to Portal. You are a test subject in a unique environment interacting with your surroundings in a creative way. But here you are alone: There is no humor, no cynicsm, no cake lie, only partially frustrating puzzles thanks to the imprecise controls – nothing else.
A solid puzzler but little else. What it sets out to do, gameplay-wise, it succeeds in, providing admirable and occasionally fiddly conundrums to cudgel your grey matter with. However, outside of that, there's little to charm you, little to make you 'love' the game, rather than just like it.
An enjoyable, finely crafted puzzler that's over far too soon. [March 2012, p.66]
It might look like Portal but it certainly doesn't play like it, which is a good thing in terms of the puzzles but not the dour presentation and story.
Why must we all compare this to the Portal series? It is a puzzle game and they don't all have to be based from Portal! It is its own as we all are. Yet time and time again I hear puzzle games compared to Portal as if Portal is the template for all puzzle games. Sure the Portal series was fantastic, but that doesn't mean that all puzzle games need a great story. Q.U.B.E. is a purely intellectual game and I feel pity for those who cannot see that. Now on with the review:
It is a real work of art in puzzle gaming. A game truly about pure puzzle and well worth the investment. Although Q.U.B.E.'s design is simple, after hours of challenging puzzles Q.U.B.E. always offers something new for your mind to chew on.
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PC
لعبة الغاز كاسرة للقالب في الفكرة و المضمون ,تجربة ممتعة و لكن قد تنتهي بسرعة مع تصاعد صعوبة الالغاز وعم تغليفها بقصة اكثر اندماجية
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PC
Interesting riddles, which in the end became quite difficult for me. The overall idea / story is interesting and intriguing ... but the ending leaves a bit of disappointment. I cannot say that I was satisfied with this "answer" to the questions that my imagination asked this game.
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PC
It's $10 for a 2-hour game. The fundamental flaw with this game is that the developers were simply scared to let players have any freedom to explore or experiment. Which is to say that the whole premise is flawed. A Portal wannabe, this game lacks any of Portal's fun, both in the sense that I really, truly missed GLaDoS making the game hilarious as well as giving the game any sort of context for what happens, as well as in the sense that simply pushing and pulling blocks isn't nearly as fun as running through a perpetual portal tunnel.
Even if Portal 1 constrained you to one solution just to teach you a new trick with the portal gun, you could still USE the portal gun wherever. The gloves in this game only do one specific thing on the handful of blocks specifically given to you in specific areas for you to accomplish your specified mandatory puzzle time.
When all you have are two to five blocks to push or pull, and you know that EVERY one of those blocks will be used, all the puzzle solutions become obvious. Even a few red herring blocks would have been welcome. What the game could have really used, however, would have been freer-floating blocks, and puzzles that actually use the character's relative position in some interesting physics puzzles (like Portal did) so everything wasn't just so scripted.
As a result, the developers seem to have quickly found out that they painted themselves into a corner, and couldn't keep coming up with new puzzles using the same block types, so they had to keep inventing new arbitrary block types or conditions. First you have color blocks you have to push with other blocks, then it's a ball. Then it's a ball on a slope with timed actions (annoying). Then you have to do everything all over again in the dark (REALLY annoying). Then some blue balls start wrecking the place for no reason (but you don't know if that's supposed to be good or bad for lack of plot). Then they start being suspiciously part of obviously pre-planned puzzles where they don't wreck things and move in set patterns to activate other blocks. Then magnet blocks. Then lasers and lenses. Then they forget the whole "blue balls wreck everything" concept entirely, and there's just rubble everywhere for no reason, even though everything still works. Then they super-charge your gloves at a Lego temple for some reason, and you can start changing the colors of different blocks (which would almost make you have to stop and think were it not for the fact that there are only 1 to 4 blocks you can change at a time, anyway, so there are still too few permutations to make puzzles challenging). Then the game ends in a completely unexpected, anti-climactic, and utterly confusing way because the game has no plot, and dumps you out to the menu screen because the devs couldn't think of anything more to do with their premise.
It's funny to see a game so utterly linear seem so utterly aimless. It just leaves me with the feeling that the developers discovered how limiting their game's premise was too late, so they just kept throwing new things at you every 5 minutes hoping that they could milk another 2 or 3 puzzles out of it before you got bored.
Plus the devs seem to spend an inordinate amount of time making you sit through cutscenes or walk in tunnels where the Lego structures jiggle in ways that cause them to clip through one another...
What this game could have really stood to try to copy would be games like Trine or Fantastic Contraption, where you DON'T have just one arbitrary solution to the puzzle. Fantastic Contraption, especially, rewards coming up with clever new ways to use the same tiny handful of pieces in new ways to solve new problems, or even to just go back and solve the old puzzles in a new way. When you complete qube, which only took about 2 hours, you never really want to go back, because there's no reason to do so.
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PC
This is a very interesting puzzle game. I just beat it, and let me say, it HAD THE POTENTIAL to be as great as Portal or Portal 2. What held it back? Lack of story explanation. Some people would count that as a plus, but it makes you feel empty after you beat it. The game was very fun, but very nail rippingly difficult at times. Sometimes I knew EXACTLY how to solve a puzzle, but you have to be so PRECISE to solve it, it's ridiculous. I highly recommend it if you like any sort of mentally challenging puzzle game. Simple mechanics, complex challenges. Strange environment. Uh, what else.. Oh the music. Play your own, it gets very old very fast.
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PC
Summary Set in a mysterious and abstract sterile environment, Q.U.B.E. (Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion) is a first-person puzzle game that challenges players to navigate each level by manipulating coloured cubes that surround them. There
Platforms:
- PC
Initial Release Date: Dec 17, 2011
Developer:
- Toxic Games
Publisher: Toxic Games
Genres: