Cubism
Year: 2020
Rating: E
Time Played: ~6 hours
While most Virtual Reality games emphasize the immersive nature of the medium, few handle the ability to manipulate virtual objects freely in 3D space. While there are certainly puzzle games in VR (like Tetris Effect), none quite scratch that IQ test itch like Cubism. Of course, with puzzle games like this, there comes a point where the game gets too challenging to complete. This is even without a timer or other mechanic trying to pressure the player to work faster. Still, Cubism is a relaxing challenge for your mind.
For those new to Virtual Reality, Cubism is a good primer for how to use the controllers (or even the hand-tracking features). Since the entire game is merely manipulating different shapes to fit into a 3D outlined space, there’s a lot of grabbing, rotating, and placing. It can be played seated, and doesn’t have any extreme elements that might induce motion sickness. This game could easily be ported to other non-VR platforms, but I think it works best as a VR game because it fully uses the 3D space by having the player physically move the pieces to where they need to go.
The simplicity of Cubism is part of its charm. It’s just you and the pieces—and soothing piano music by Robert Schumann. Trying to work out mentally how these pieces fit together is sometimes just a matter of trial and error. However, there are later puzzles at the higher difficulties where certain wrong solutions get stuck in your mind and it would be helpful if there was a hint system of some kind to push past these mental blocks. As it is, I could not fully complete the game, but I definitely got a lot of enjoyment out of it while it lasted.
A simple but gradually challenging puzzle game, I give Cubism 4.0 stars out of 5.
