5 Minutes Until Self-Destruction

[H1]Fun quick puzzles buried under a pile of bugs and loud sirens[/H1] Thanks to the dev for the free copy of the game! This is although a complete and honest review regardless. This game had the potential to be a frantic, fun little puzzle rush, but instead it ended up being five minutes of stress stretched into an hour of frustration. The core idea works: the puzzles are clever, the timing is tense, and there's a strong atmosphere that makes you feel like the walls really are closing in. The pacing is tight but fair (when using a mouse instead of WASD), if everything goes smoothly. Unfortunately, almost nothing does. The game sometime crashes if you so much as click outside the window, I lost a perfect run that way and nearly self-destructed myself. Add in two puzzles that are entirely auditory (bad news for the hard of hearing or anyone without perfect headphones) and you’re already in rough territory. The timer is merciless, but instead of being spent on puzzle-solving, a chunk is wasted waiting on unskippable animations like elevators and bridge-building. One of the main puzzles is flat-out bugged if you don’t play with your mouse since the WASD keys can’t even reach every button, despite being the default controls shown. And if you crank the volume to catch the audio clues? Get ready for the auto-destruction announcement to blast your eardrums. On top of that, there are no achievements, no accessibility toggles, and no option to turn off the timer to just practice puzzles without stress. What could’ve been a fun and short escape challenge is instead a crash-prone test of patience. If the bugs were ironed out, I’d happily recommend it, but in its current state? Don’t touch this one with a twelve-foot pole, unless you enjoy exploding out of sheer irritation. [quote]If you enjoyed this review, please check out my curator page to find more : [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/45639970-Ele%2527s-Little-Recommendation-Corner/][b]Ele's Little Recommendation Corner[/b][/url]![/quote] [quote]Thank you for reading my review. If you enjoyed it, please leave a like and visit [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/] [b]IndieGems[/b] [/url] & our [url=https://www.youtube.com/@IndieGems2][b]YouTube channel[/b][/url] for more reviews like this one.[/quote]