Quantum Conundrum Review

Change the world at the press of a button? Now you are thinking with dimensions

Posted by Ben Thomas on July 11, 2012 - 11:05pm EST

The main character is your mad scientist uncle, voiced by Q of Star Trek (John de Lancie). He makes light remarks as you move through the copy and paste corridors between puzzles. He also gives subtle hints in regards to the puzzle you are working on. He might tell you of the dimension required or the order required to progress. These abstract references can save you several minutes and it doesn’t feel like the solutions are handed to you. The very existence of your Uncle prevents the game from being a series of puzzle rooms.

You'll use the upside down dimension to juggle objects over lasers

The game progresses quite well but it’s a shame there weren’t more exciting puzzle solutions. The later puzzles use all four dimensions but the solutions are essentially smaller steps from each. Most of the satisfaction comes from juggling objects in the upside down dimension and occasionally slowing the world down to perform the seemingly impossible. The fluffy and heavy dimensions seldom produce exciting combinations. The solutions are competent but you’ll rarely need to think outside the box.

QC is a good puzzler even if it is not quite as polished, funny or intriguing as Portal. It is priced very competitively and there is about 5 hours worth of puzzle solving through the campaign. You are able to return to individual puzzles and set shorter times (or fewer dimensional leaps) if you desire. There are more than enough good qualities to offset some platforming and simple solution dilemmas. If you enjoyed Portal then Quantum Conundrum is a good temporary replacement.

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Our ratings for Quantum Conundrum on PC out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)

Presentation

Competent use of UE3 with nice visual changes for each dimension. Suffers from visually repetitive corridors between puzzles.

Gameplay

Dimensions offer a different take on solving puzzles in first person. Don’t expect to be blown away by the solutions, could have used the four dimensions for longer. Some finicky platforming sections

Single Player

Dialogue by John De Lancie proves adequate with some history of the Quadrangle mansion and previous experiments

Multiplayer

None

Performance

(Show PC Specs)

CPU: AMD Phenom II 955 @ 3.2GHz
GPU: Sapphire Radeon HD 5850 1GB
RAM: 4GB DDR3
OS: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

Unreal Engine 3 stutters in doorways as it loads the next area, a few seconds every so often isn’t that bad. Load times are fairly good with no other slowdowns.

Overall

A solid puzzler with some interesting aspects involving four different dimensions. Expanding the solutions and employing more forgiving platforming would have improved the game.