10 years ago and the first-person puzzle game, Q.U.B.E. was released. I never played it. I had certainly heard of it, I just never got around to playing it. Now, developer and publisher Toxic Games has released Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary. If I told you that this was a 10th anniversary celebration of the game Q.U.B.E., would you believe me?
“Entirely rebuilt from the ground up, Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary is the ultimate celebration of the decade-old original, bringing refined visuals, completely redesigned and revised gameplay sections, and a whole new chapter to the award-winning, brain-twisting first-person puzzler.”
As well as an impressive visual overhaul (see the trailer above), this new version offers other refinements. Built from the ground up, it also features ‘completely redesigned and revised gameplay sections, and a whole new chapter’. The publicity blurb says that the new chapter alone offers around 4-6 hours of gameplay. That’s pretty good for a single chapter of a game. Then, Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary gives you the option of playing through the original 2012 version or the 2014 director’s cut, which adds a story narrative missing from the original version. Plus, there’s a director’s commentary (I love these things), collectables to find, concept art and more. throw in some accessibility options too. It really does sound like a very stuffed package of a game, with plenty to keep you busy.
The core gameplay has you using various coloured cubes, each with their own properties, to reach the level exit of the room that you are in. So, by ways of a ‘for instance’, the red cubes can be raised and lowered to reach areas. The blue cubes are trampolines to bounce you around. Yellow cubes work like a podium/step with a low, middle and high-type thing and more. It is simple and basic stuff, but it can also get the old grey matter working as you often have to juggle the various cubes to reach your goal. As you progress through the game, the rooms that you have to exit become more complex. While the main aim is still just to reach the exit, how you actually do that gets trickier and tricker. You’ll soon have to use the cubes to guide a ball to a specific point. Some parts of the room can be twisted and turned. Some areas are played in darkness. There’s a decent variety of elements that keep the puzzles fresh and you thinking.
Priced at £15 and available for all the major consoles and PC right now, is Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary worth a purchase? For me, as someone who had not played the game the first time around? Yes. I really enjoyed this. I can’t compare it to the original, as I said, I never played it. But it is kind of similar to Portal, in terms of the puzzle side of things. I don’t think I would call Q.U.B.E. a great game and just as a bit of research for this review, I looked at how the game was originally received when released back in 2012. It got mixed and average reviews. I can understand why too as it is a very okay game. But I’m reviewing Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary and asking if it is worth it.
With all of the extra content, the two versions of the game, the new chapter, visual overhaul and everything else? I do enjoy a good puzzle game and this is a good one. All of the extra content takes it up a few notches over the mixed and average reviews that the original got, in my eyes. The core gameplay isn’t exactly remarkable and if I am being honest, I did much prefer Portal and its sequel for a game of this type. But that does not mean that Q.U.B.E. 10th Anniversary isn’t worth a purchase, I honestly think that it is and you get a lot of game for your coin too.
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