Parallax

If you've played Portal or Antichamber and liked it you should absolutely get this game. Visually it should reminds me of Antichamber but with a lot more polish. The puzzle mechanics are minimalistic but they all blend really nicely. I'm a little disappointed that you can't see your best level performance anywhere. The replay value is raised quite a lot by challenging yourself to beat each level as fast as possible. Update as of 2015-03-26: The developers has done so many amazing things to improve this game for our little niche of speedrunners. While it still doesn't keep track of best performance the game now has a much more detailed in-game timer and in speedrun mode there's a timer for your full run as well. Huge amounts of praise to Toasty.

I'll start by saying Parallax and The Talos Principle are [i]the[/i] first-person puzzlers of the past 12 months. At their core, they are each archetypal puzzle games: begin at a starting point and arrive at a predetermined goal with the means provided using logic and reasoning. Like any well-constructed puzzle game, the levels start simple and gradually become more complex while introducing more concepts which build upon themselves. However, they are also much different from one another. TTP is immersed in a story which drives and motivates the player (much like Myst or Portal) with its mystery and philosophical ideas. It has large, beautiful environments that provide enough to explore and add to the experience. Parallax is a straightforward puzzler. There is no story, no environments or landscapes to explore, nothing -- just level after level of puzzles. But this isn't exactly a negative. The game really works in its simplicity. It somehow creates a lot of incentive in the player...

Preface: This review was written after completing the game with all Perfect ranks. Parallax is one of these small gems you tend to overlook while browsing through the vast collection of games Steam has to offer. Nowadays every new puzzle game has to have a unique gimmick to it to make it interesting and challenging for the player. In Parallax's case, it's parallel dimensions coupled with some gravity defying platforms in the later levels. The challenge is fair and balanced and the difficulty increases steadily as you progress through the game. While some levels can look quite intimidating at first, with a bit of thought, careful planning and memorization you can beat everything fairly fast and achieve perfect level completion within very few actions. Even if Parallax doesn't break any new grounds in the audiovisual department, its simple yet futuristic looking monochromatic art style along with electronic beats lend themselves well to the game creating a pleasant overall experience....

Let me begin saying that I have played through several first person puzzle games, and I've enjoyed every one of them. I enjoy a good puzzle on occasion. Knowing this, I was excited to play Parallax. I've finished the game, and I only used a guide for the very end of the last stage of the last chapter because the lasers before the turnstile confused me (I didn't think you could go under them). So, I give Parallax credit for being relatively simple but not too simple to the point where it was child's play. For some reason though, I found Parallax incredibly boring! And not the relaxing kind of boring either. It's not like I haven't played similar games in the past (Hook and Colortone come to mind). It took me about a month or so to force myself to play through this game. It isn't even that long! I did it in 3.5 hours. Those felt like the longest 3.5 hours of my life. After one or two stages, I experienced extreme Parallax fatigue. There are no jump scares, but part of me wishes there ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWpi5Ex10Ng Very fun 3D puzzle game that uses portals that take you back and forth between black and white facets of the puzzle to eventually get to the end goal on each level. There is no loot, inventory, enemies, resources, gold, or anything else but you versus the puzzles themselves. Each level gets progressively harder, using portals, switches, and tricks that start to bend your mind between the black and white realms, very addicting indeed. With 32 total levels now, plenty of graphic and audio options, plus the ability to play with a mouse & keyboard or a controller, this game is a good value for your money. - Especially if you enjoy these kind of games.

Absolutely love this game, very similar to Antichamber in both style and certain in game dynamics. The smooth flowing from one plane of existance to the other makes for immersive puzzles. Trying to get perfect on every level seems attainable and the sound and abience really tie the game togehter.

A sorely under-recognized game. The developer claims that it's a puzzle-platformer, but this game plays more like a puzzle game than a platformer despite the platforming features. Overall the game is very well done. The art style is very minimalistic, even more so than Antichamber: just two colors in the entire game, menu and all. Really my only complaints would be that there aren't customizable color schemes and there's no thematic music on the dark side of all the puzzles. If you think that the game has no narrative or story, you'd be right, but let's face it: gaming for gaming's sake hasn't been appreciated enough. Estimated initial playtime: 3-6 hours (for 32 levels). It's as solid a game as (say) The Swapper! I give it an 8/10 rating.

There are two worlds, in two dimensions, overlaid in space. To solve each puzzle, you need to visualize both dimensions to understand when to jump between them. The puzzles are interesting, and like Portal, they are just difficult enough. The graphics are stylish, with stark use of monochrome colours. The soundtrack provides an excellent mood, relaxing, zen. Highly recommended.

Simple but very effective fps puzzle game. The puzzle design is very ellegant and uses the game mechanic very well. If you want all the puzzle content of "Portal" without the heavy story of "The Talos Principle" this is the game for you.

Game looks very cool, but it's not a very good puzzle game. The puzzles are simultaneously simple, while also very long and complicated. Basically imagine a simple 2d line maze, but with a lot of teleporters and switches. That is effectively what this entire game is, just in a slick 3d presentation. There are never any "aha" moments. It's just a series of fancy mazes.