Parallax Review

If a billion puzzle games exist, how do you make the billionth and one count without it getting lost in the shuffle? You could give it a sense of urbane wittiness, like in Portal; or you can experiment with a never-before-seen gameplay element, like in Shift. The abundance of puzzle games out there means that they now must have an edge; something different to separate them from the hoi-polloi. Canadian developers Toasty Games are the latest to try their hand at this with their latest offering, Parallax.

So, how exactly does Parallax stand out? Visually, there is absolutely nothing else like it anywhere. Parallax uses minimalistic black and white graphics to create a world that is void of everything except you and the puzzle at hand. No more than two colours are ever seen in this game, which creates a stark, disturbing sense of serenity that adds to the puzzle solving experience. Not only is the game superficially gorgeous, the peaceful art style helps us to concentrate and find solutions to the puzzles. At first glance, I was prepared to cast off this game's art style as a source of endless eye strain, headaches, and vomiting; however, Parallax may just be an unexpected contender for best looking game of 2015.

Unfortunately, while the graphics are a revelation, the gameplay is rather uninspired. Strip away the cool graphical presentation, and what remains is essentially every mediocre puzzle game ever made. All the  clichés you can think of make an appearance, such as switches and time-based puzzles where you must move from point A to B faster than it takes for something to change. Everything here feels like it has been done before; even its most interesting parts have been 'inspired' by superior puzzle games such as Portal and Shift.

The key to Parallax's gameplay is simple: in each puzzle, you have to make your way across the map towards a shimmering checkpoint. However, you cannot just walk there; you will have to get there by accessing unseen paths, and this is done by entering portals which switch you into another dimension. Parallax's art style has a functional purpose; when you begin, the world you inhabit is mostly white, but to emphasise the change to another dimension, you enter an alternate 'black' world, which is like the 'negative' version of the white world. The negative world has hidden paths, switches, and platforms which you need to traverse to get back to the 'positive' world and into the checkpoint. This would be a more interesting gimmick if it wasn't brutally butchered from the two aforementioned games; you negotiate the two worlds via portal, and the white world/black world dynamic has very clearly been taken from Shift, yet cannily disguised with a first person viewpoint and the inability to switch worlds at will. To be clear: this is a very functional, even enjoyable game, but very, very little of it is original, which comes as a disappointment when initial previews looked so promising.

It must also be made clear that the controls are much too stiff, which will lead to many misfires while playing the game. You control yourself with the time-tested WASD layout, but the controls are sluggish and don't exactly do what you tell them to do, which is a nightmare when trying to navigate Parallax's many, many narrow platforms. Expect to fall to your death often – there is even a Steam achievement for dying 20 times, cleverly titled “Sean Bean” - a good joke, but seems a touch too mocking, considering that it's all too easy to make a Trevelyan of yourself. The fact that you can die so often interferes with the pace of the game and really takes you out of the puzzle solving experience.

To Toasty Games' credit, however, it must be said that the puzzles are actually rather good – while the puzzle pieces here have been cobbled together from elsewhere, the developers have managed to create a set of 32 puzzles that are well constructed and will challenge even the most seasoned fans of puzzle games. Yet, it must be said that this game, relatively speaking, is not cheap. Parallax sells for £6.99/$9.99 on Steam – which works out at an alarming 23p/31c per puzzle. This game isn't so short that it'll flash before your eyes – the later puzzles will admittedly take a little while to think through – but is definitely not long enough to make Parallax value for money.

If anything at all could save this game from total mediocrity, it's the music, and it is clear that the composer for Parallax, Derris-Kharlan, has completely knocked it out of the park. Derris-Kharlan opted for a set of cool and atmospheric tracks, which simultaneously creates a chilling experience; making the void feel more void-like, while also creating an oddly calming ambience. It is such a shame that the artistic direction in this game, graphics and sound together, are so accomplished, because being tacked onto such an average puzzle game is a disservice not just to Parallax but also to the developers and players. This game should have been so much more; unfortunately, it's clear to see here, in black and white, that this game fails to reach its full potential.