Recent reviews by Archduke Pebbles

I really like this game, but it certainly isn't for everyone. If you're wondering whether it's for you, read my review.

It's a logical puzzle game that sometimes uses moon logic. Every puzzle is just a set of doors and (usually) a hint as to which one to open, which ranges from shapes representing numbers (door 3 is the one with the triangle, door 4 the one with the square, etc) to decrypting morse code or a newly invented type of Wingdings. Oh and you're never told what to do; you just get a code and it's up to you to think of using morse code or any other decryption you can think of. And did I say any mistake resets the whole level?

It's also severely unpolished. There's bugs where you clip through the walls, some hints aren't tranlated and are kept in the original Russian, and occasionally the mouse sensitivity drops super low without any way to fix it. If you think you might get frustrated by any of that, this game is not for you.

So why is this still a positive review? Because once it clicks, it's one of the most satisfying puzzle games I've ever played, and I played almost all that are on Steam (Portal, Witness, Talos, Superliminal, Rethink, you name it). Once you get into the mindset of the developer, it is as if you're playing a game directly against him (in my understanding the puzzles were all designed by a single dev from Russia). As long as you're patient and agree to think before trying to open any door, you'll rarely make any mistake beyond the first level (where you're getting used to the way the game plays with you).

Some of the unpolished elements even play into this. The game was made in the Unity engine, and inherits issues with wall clipping from that engine. Some of the secrets (the collectable keys, or other secrets such as a hidden references to other games) are deliberately hidden in places where you can only find them by glitching through a wall or up a platform. These things too feel like the developer is playing a game with us, challenging us to find the limits of this engine in which the game was made.

So yeah, the puzzles are hard and sometimes near-impossible without some outside help (I had to look up how musical notation works, for example), and the game can be frustrating from a technical standpoint, but the puzzles hidden in the game make it so, so worth it for me. Whether it's worth it for you, is up to you. (PS: The first version, "Door", is slightly cheaper and also great, if you want to try that out first.)

Exactly what it says on the tin, it's a True or False game. It's fun and it's free.

This is my favorite game of all time. It does everything. Amazing atmosphere. Amazing lore and story once you figure it out. Amazingly detailed gameplay. Challenging but infinitely rewarding. It's never unfair. You'll die and know it's your fault, but you also know you can get better and overcome this challenge. It's a game that can be played an infinite amount of times, and you'll love it more every time. The game is perfect when you're feeling down and want to focus on that next boss, and it's perfect when you feel ecstatic and can take on the world.

Minimalistic logic based puzzle game. To me, it's very fun and challenging. A very simple base mechanic is used in interesting ways that make you scratch your head. Judging from the level select screen, I think it'll take me about 3-4 hours to beat it, which is good value for a $5 puzzle game. I would definately recommend it, especially if you enjoyed games like Hexcells.

It's a decent game, but it has a lot of technical problems and is missing some key features. If you liked Half Life 2, Bioshock and Timeshift, but for some reason don't want to play them again, you could buy Singularity. I would say it's not a good game, but a fun game. 4/10.

Let's start with the bad. There are no subtitles. Just none, at all. Considering there are usually a lot of sounds and music in the background, and all characters speak with a Russian accent, this is a gigantic problem. Also, it's just rediculous for a game from 2010 to not have subtitles.

The second problem are the options. There barely are any graphical options, and even less for audio options. The lack of the latter makes the subtitle problem even worse; you can't just lower the SFX or Music so you would hear the voices better.

The graphical options might be a result from a (bad) port. Another minor result of this might be a problem with the controls. In the beginning of the game, you can use a melee attack. However, at some point you get a new power, which is binded to the melee key, and from this moment you can no longer use your melee attack. My guess would be that it's because it was the same button on console, they made it the same button on PC as well. This sucks, since the new power you get on that button is vastly inferior to your regular melee attack.
Another control-related problem is the Use/Reload key. For some reason, they put both on the same key, and you can't change that. That means that you either don't have E as Use key, or the R as Reload. You get used to this quickly, but there is still no reason for this to be inconvienent.

The graphical options are bad, and possibly as a result, so are the actual graphics. The style is OK, but the texture quality is decent for the best objects, and it's terrible for some. There are some other problems that bothered me in the beginning, but I got used to fairly quick One of them was animations that would get interrupted by other animations, making it look rediculous. For instance, the recoil animation on your pistol is actually longer than the minimum time between shots, resulting the in recoiling animation ending halfway to display the shooting animation. They either should have made the animations as long as the action that they belong to, or they should have made them go over in eachother better.
Another graphical problem is a minor problem with a specific weapon: You are sort of invisible. There is a special weapon that lets you guide a bullet, and it uses a bulled-mounted camera to do so. If you turn the bullet 180 degrees, and look at the position that your character is standing, there is nothing there. Nothing at all. In the meantime, your enemies do see you and keep firing at you. This looks rather rediculous; the enemies fire at thin air...

That were most of the big complaints. It's quite a list, and it's the reason I would never call this a good game. I did however finish the game, and most of the time spent I enjoyed myself. That means there must some redeeming qualies.

Actually, there is one. The gunplay. It's a shooter, and in the end the most important part is the combat. Which is very enjoyable. There are quite some weapons and they vary greatly. That is, however the only good part, and it's still not perfect. There are many weapons, but I used most of them only for a little while, before realizing it's vastly inferior to my main weapon: the Shotgun. It's so strong that it kills almost all enemies in one shot. With your sprint you are fast enough to avoid most damage, get up close, and one-hit them. This is fun, but it also means that it's not possible without thinking "This is so much weaker than the Shotgun" on most other weapons. The only other 2 weapons that I used sometimes were the Sniper and the Minigun, both to deal with enemies from afar.

Apart from the gunplay, there's not much to the gameplay. You can use Time-powers in combat, but it's pointless. Depending on the enemy, it's either a useless slow, or an instant kill, and even if it's an instant kill it costs a ton of energy (you can only do this twice in a row, three with upgrades I guess), while you could also just use your shotgun for the same effect. I never had any ammo problems while I did have energy problems, and this is while I always used guns and very rarely the energy powers.

The story is enjoyable, but predictable and full of plotholes and half-explained events. For instance, there are some occasions that you change things in the past that change the future (in big and small ways). The problem is that all characters seem to know this while there is no way they could know. The explanation they give has to do with leaving notes, but it makes no sense, and it would imply that everyone believes something because it's written on a wall somewhere. Another big problem with the story is a spoiler for the ending, so skip it if you want to. In the end the big reveal is that you are the one who changed the past and messed up the world. You saved some scientist from a burning building, and the scientist became a Russian dictator controlling the world. They act like it's a big reveal, but it's glaringly obvious and if you payed any attention to the game you would have know it an hour in. That's not the only problem: the 'solution' they give for this problem is that you go back in time to when you save this scientist, and kill YOURSELF. So you can't just kill the scientist (for no reason whatsoever) and have to kill yourself from the past, creating a time paradox (aka plothole). That were just some examples of mistakes in the story, and overall I would say this makes the story very forgettable.

There are some more problems related to both story and gameplay. The first is the Time-Slow thing you can do while zoomed in with the Sniper. It's quite fun, but for some reason you can use this before you character ever comes in contact with Time-altering powers. It is a real Time power, and not just holding your breath or something, since it's called something like Time Dialation. There is no explanation given for this, whatsoever.

The last thing I want to point out is the pointless use of the time altering power on objects. You can make objects yourger and older, which is used for puzzles and hidden areas. It's quite fun, but you can also use it on ammo chests, audio logs and stairs, in which case it's often just pointless waiting. If you find an audio log, instead of just listening to it, you have to repair it by making it new again (i.e. press the Q button) and wait for the animation. The same with ammo chests, and stairs; you just have to wait a second before you can use the object. The idea is fun, but if you have to wait a second before using any object it's just tedious and annoying.

So overall, there's not much to this game. Nothing is exceptional, and the fun part (the shooting) get's harder to enjoy because of missing features and technical problems. In general, I think a 2010 game by Raven, published by Activision should have been much better, and it's just unacceptable to not have subtitles in this day and age. The concept was OK, and if they put a bit more time and effort in, I think it could be a very good shooter. Alas, now it's just a below-mediocore shooter. The only reason to buy this would be if all the things below are true:
1. It's on sale for $5 or less.
2. You really liked Half Life 2, but have no desire to play it again.
3. You really liked Bioshock, but have no desire to play it again.
4. You really liked Timeshift, but have no desire to play it again.
5. You don't like to listen to music while playing games (since if you do you won't hear a word from the story)
6. You know you can get over major and minor problems in graphics, contols, and desing for the sake of enjoyable shooting.