PlayStation VR receives one of the best puzzle games in its entire catalog; a short, very satisfying, futuristic experience from Charm Games.
In the three and a half years that it has been around, PlayStation VR has demonstrated the ability of virtual reality to reinvent and shine the oldest genres in this sector. There are the merits of games like Astro Bot and Moss in the realm of platforms, Firewall: Zero Hour and Blood & Truth with shooters and the Aim Controller, or arcades like Beat Saber. Not to mention the notorious "extra" that the glasses have given to titles like Superhot, Resident Evil 7, Wipeout: The Omega Collection or No Man's Sky, which find their best version in the hands of the device. But if there is a genre that is experiencing a second golden age thanks to the peripheral, those are the puzzle games. Statik; Please, Don't Touch Anything; Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes; I Expect You to Die; Darknet; Floor Plan; Red Matter; Transpose; Salary Man Escape; 18 Floors … and the list goes on and on. Even licenses like Batman, Star Trek and Wolfenstein have launched their own proposal in this puzzle. In such a context it is even more striking and remarkable that there are still games capable of surprising us, with tests as original as varied and challenging. This is the case of FORM, whose Reviews we are bringing you today. A brilliant experience that seems essential for all lovers of puzzles and virtual reality.
A game as short as it is bright
FORM is the first work of Charm Games, a very young video game studio located in Vancouver (Canada) and founded in 2015 by Alan Jernigan and Derek Young, the two great minds behind the project. The title was developed by just seven people and was released in 2017 through the Oculus store. It was so well received that Charm Games have encouraged us to bring it to PlayStation 4 now, while the team is working on their next game: Trial by Teng (which luckily will also be virtual reality puzzles). For all those who could not try it at the time, FORM offers a very short experience – extremely short – but, at the same time, tremendously inspired. It is a new brushstroke of genius within the genre that leaves us thirsty for more once we pass all their tests (which will take us about an hour and a half). At times some of his challenges have reminded us of the best Jonathan Blow (creator of Braid and The Witness) and those are bigger words.
The FORM story puts us in the shoes of Devin Eli, one of the brightest (and most confused) minds in the world. In a utopian future and within his high-tech laboratory, Devin begins his investigation of a mysterious artifact known as "the obelisk" (much like the 2001 monolith: A Space Odyssey or the Dead Space effigy). This strange object has had all kinds of harmful effects on the rest of the intellectuals who have tried to study it and has caused many of them to lose their minds … just as our protagonist will soon. In just a few minutes we will dive into our own mind and try to unlock and restore various memories damaged by the obelisk. How? Well, surpassing a whole series of puzzles to each one more curious and striking. In general, the plot is loose and makes an appearance very sporadically. It is a rare commodity and difficult to follow and understand. A mere excuse to take us from one test to another. Luckily, this defect counteracts another of the game's debts, and is that it is not translated. Voices and texts are in English. It does not require too much level, but in any case, nobody is going to miss much.
It all starts here, on our protagonist's desktop (as in The Persistence, also on PS VR).
Your original logic and geometry puzzles
The game does not conquer us neither for its history, nor for its duration, but for its playability and its wonderful setting. This is especially curious considering the very simple basis from which we started. In FORM there is no need to move or rotate the camera. For an hour and a half, two hours, the title proposes us to be seated as if we had Devin's desk in front of us, and as if strange artifacts were posing on it whose function we must decipher. Broadly speaking, everything consists of pulling levers, pressing switches and connecting objects (although you have to find out in what order and how, of course). Starting from a formula so easy to understand, the game goes up revolutions and soon we will be solving all kinds of problems of logic and geometry. There are few similar things in the PlayStation VR catalog (The Room, perhaps? It is a unique proposal that seems to pay tribute to the channel of youtubers like Cuby (with more than two and a half million subscribers), in which they solve many puzzles Look at them if you want to know what FORM is without fear of gutting any of its challenges.
All the puzzles are original and intuitive; they change every little bit, preventing us from getting tired; and they gain complexity and weight gradually and very intelligently. There will come a time when we will not only have to attend to the number of pieces there are, but also to their colors and even how they sound. FORM appeals to all the senses and, on top of that, spreads the experience with the odd tribute and tasteful detail, such as an obvious nod to Braid and the puzzle puzzles from Jonathan Blow's game. The progression is so good (and the feelings so positive) that its abrupt ending feels like a real stab. He seemed to have much more travel and had the margin to combine proposals and win in difficulty without despairing anyone. It is not too difficult. If we take into account the context of its original launch (in 2017), all this can be understandable, since at the time most of the virtual reality games were little more than demos of little content and complexity. But today he knows frankly little and is even more angry when thinking about the talent that oozes out. We will have to wait until Trial by Teng.
We will feel like an engineer who discovers the technology of a much more advanced civilization than ours. A very attractive technology, by the way.
A science fiction movie
As we said, the gameplay is accompanied by a wonderful futuristic setting. The scenarios around us will change and become colossal, like taken from a spaceship, and the objects with which we interact seem authentic relics of civilizations much more advanced than ours. The FORM design is a monumental feat of engineering and we will feel as if we are truly researchers who are adept at managing a class of technology. The immersion is total. At times Rapture and humanity will come to mind; at times Isaac Clarke and his sloppy engineer in Dead Space; sometimes films like Pandorum or Transformers, for the stages and the great figures and buildings that surround us. The game is very striking visually and enters through the eyes thanks to that artistic section and the continuous games of light and particle effects (lightning, sparks …). It is accompanied by a discreet and ephemeral soundtrack that makes way for concentration and accompanies the feeling of loneliness, emptiness and vastness of its stages. As for issues of calibration and dizziness (motion sickness), the game does not offer any problem since, we repeat, there is no need to move, rotate the camera or teleport. We are in front of "a desk" and everything should be with the naked eye or with a slight turn of our neck (and we can even adjust the height of the stool we are on). In fact, this concept of desktop and exploration of different objects is only possible in virtual reality, where we can examine things and make use of them as we want, from the angles and positions we choose with our movements. Interaction by flag, as in the best technology games. Just grab two PlayStation Move and figure out the brain teasers. Or what is the same, to enjoy.
CONCLUSION
You can't beat FORM and its puzzles … until they are over after two hours of play. Then his story (with voices and texts in English) leaves you with a silly face and you are left thinking that it can't be, that there has to be more. That you NEED more. The first Charm Games game comes to PS4 and PlayStation VR three years after its release on Oculus, where it garnered all kinds of awards (and with good reason) in the virtual reality categories. At that time technology had us accustomed to such short experiences, although today they give more cante. In any case, its logic and geometry puzzles are original and intuitive, changing every two by three and evolving and progressing very intelligently, involving more and more concepts and meanings. They are also surrounded by a futuristic setting that enters through the eyes and catches any lover of science fiction, who will come to mind dozens of films and references. A game that leaves us thirsty and that we will spend more time longing for than enjoying. An ephemeral brushstroke of genius.
THE BEST
- The puzzles are great. Smart, varied, original, with a satisfactory progression …
- The setting enters through the eyes.
- The immersion of the scenarios and the interaction with the objects.
WORST
- It is very short (does not exceed two hours). Its mechanics gave for more.
- The story is too obvious an excuse (and it's entirely in English).
Very good
Game with a remarkable finish that we will enjoy and remember. A good purchase, highly recommended for lovers of the genre. It is well cared for at all levels.
