Causality Review – Fun with Space and Time

<p>I&&num;8217&semi;ve played a lot of puzzle games&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a genre I&&num;8217&semi;ve always had enjoyed and keep finding myself coming back to after playing a few longer games&period; <em>Causality<&sol;em> is deceptively simple in its first few levels&period; It quickly builds on previous ideas to create interesting scenarios with its different mechanics being combined in different ways&period; It wasn&&num;8217&semi;t long before I found myself needing a few minutes to complete a level rather than the few seconds the first few levels required&period; There are even a lot of levels that I found myself replaying immediately after completing them just to appreciate what had just happened&comma; which is a sign of a great puzzle game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Causality<&sol;em> has a very simple request&period; You need to get one or more astronauts to their matching escape portals&period; It may not sound like much but it&&num;8217&semi;ll take some thinking to achieve this goal&period; For starters&comma; you don&&num;8217&semi;t actually control the astronauts&period; Rather than actually moving them to where they need to go&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll simply allow time to pass and the level to play out as it naturally would&period; Astronauts will go in a certain direction and you need to alter levels and manipulate objects and time to get them to their portal&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s only a certain amount of time to get them there too but don&&num;8217&semi;t worry&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re not rushed&period; One of the things you control is the passage of time&period; You can rewind or have time pass whenever you want to&period; If an astronaut is killed or you just don&&num;8217&semi;t complete the level and need to restart it&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s not a problem at all&period; There are no lives&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s no limit to how many times you can fail&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;118717" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-118717" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-118717" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;02&sol;19224849&sol;20170219170227&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Causality&comma; Loju" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"542" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-118717" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Causality&comma; Loju<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p><em>Causality<&sol;em> places the layout in front of you and you manipulate it as needed&period; If you succeed&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re off to the next level&period; If not&comma; you can keep trying until you do&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a very satisfying experience&period; There were quite a few times I&&num;8217&semi;d get stuck for a few minutes but the solution was always right in front of me&period; As you allow time to pass&comma; you get to manipulate floor panels to move the astronaut&lpar;s&rpar; in the directions you need them to go&period; When you fail&comma; you can see why and while the solution may not be immediate&comma; you can work off the error to figure out what you need to do&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Across its 60 levels you will be tasked with a number of different variables and mechanics&period; These will range from multiple astronauts&comma; copies being created that will work together in the environment&comma; panels that have tentacles underneath that can grab and eat you&comma; and also a few others&period; These are combined in some interesting ways and quite often I found myself reminded of the many &&num;8220&semi;Aha&excl;&&num;8221&semi; moments and realizations that I felt during my playthrough of <em>Portal 2<&sol;em>&period; The majority of the levels had me smiling from ear to ear as I completed them&period; A lot of them I even jumped back to the main menu so I could replay them again because of how satisfying they were to complete again&period; The game design and level layouts are solid&period; My only regret is that there isn&&num;8217&semi;t a mobile port of this because I&&num;8217&semi;d love to be able to play it on the go&period; It is available on the Playstation Vita as well though and so I may pick it up on there once I get a Vita&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;118718" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-118718" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-118718" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;02&sol;19224929&sol;20170219184054&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Causality&comma; Loju" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"542" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-118718" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Causality&comma; Loju<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The graphics are sharp&period; They have a charm and style that match the gameplay and mood quite well&period; They go really well with the music and sound effects as well&period; The music and sounds are definitely more moody and atmospheric&period; I can&&num;8217&semi;t recall any of the music from memory&period; They&&num;8217&semi;re catchy in a different way&semi; they pull you in and help accent the tone that the visuals set&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I completed the entire game in about four hours but I tend to be slower than others sometimes with some types of puzzles&period; I was pretty good at <em>Portal 2<&sol;em> for example but I definitely wasn&&num;8217&semi;t fast&period; Levels will generally take a few minutes but there are some that will take several minutes&period; It never feels unfair or too difficult&period; Sure&comma; it may be tricky but it obeys all the rules that it sets&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s just your job to manipulate everything within those rules to succeed and reach the end&period; I also replayed portions for enjoyment and for the purposes of this review too so you may find yourself completing the game in three hours or so&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;118719" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-118719" style&equals;"width&colon; 960px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-118719" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;02&sol;19225011&sol;20170219184209&lowbar;1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Causality&comma; Loju" width&equals;"960" height&equals;"542" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-118719" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">Causality&comma; Loju<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I personally don&&num;8217&semi;t like to factor cost into a game&&num;8217&semi;s review&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a subjective thing that we all have different amounts of and it shouldn&&num;8217&semi;t have any impact on the game&&num;8217&semi;s score&period; I consider games to be art and think art should be on its own merits&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s worth mentioning as an aside though in conversations about games though because bang-for-buck is nice to know&period; This game may not be incredibly long but it costs four dollars on Steam&period; It may be a short experience but it&&num;8217&semi;s an extremely satisfying time that will surprise you more times than you&&num;8217&semi;ll be able to count&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d recommend picking it up on PC&comma; PS4&comma; or PS Vita if you&&num;8217&semi;re interested in puzzle games in any capacity&period; <em>Causality<&sol;em> was a memorable time and once I&&num;8217&semi;ve played a few other things and forgotten the details I&&num;8217&semi;ll definitely be booting this game back up again&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong>A Steam Key for Causality was Provided by <&sol;strong>Loju<strong> for the Purposes of this Review<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em>Causality was a unique and exciting time&period; I know I&&num;8217&semi;ll be replaying on PC or maybe even on the Vita once I purchase one&period; I&&num;8217&semi;d love to hear what you think about it if you pick it up&period; You can let me know by commenting below or by contacting me on Twitter at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;Mrjoshnichols">&commat;Mrjoshnichols<&sol;a>&period; You can always contact us on Twitter too at <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;twitter&period;com&sol;BagoGames">&commat;BagoGames<&sol;a>&period; For more great reviews and other great stuff&comma; make sure to follow us on Twitter so you can see all of it when it first goes up&excl;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;