Blackshift

I've played a lot of puzzle games before, but it's been a very long time since I've been this enthralled by one! There are so many interesting puzzle elements that are introduced completely organically, allowing you to understand them without the use of an explicit tutorial and, instead, through experimentation. New elements are presented even late into the game, which always made me excited to see what would lie in each new area. The exploration is also fantastic, with secrets hidden in tricky to reach areas that give puzzles an extra layer of depth and make hunting around every nook and cranny feel properly rewarding. The amazing, outside-of-the-box solutions to some of the secrets were mind blowing and always felt amazing to figure out! My only complaint might be the rather tight timing required on some puzzles can be difficult to wrestle with. For me, it was never completely unbearable, but it could get irritating. At best, it added an interesting challenge, but at worst, it turned some sections into a somewhat repetitive grind. Still, at the end of the day, the main challenge still feels overwhelmingly puzzle focused and mostly very tough, but fair. If you're a hardcore completionist or challenge seeker, the vast array of puzzles and secrets will give you lots to have fun with and the user created challenges in the Level Pit will add even more! If you're a more casual puzzle fan, the game never puts an unbearable amount of pressure on you to do everything, and there are some tools to help you out with levels you might get stumped on, so you can stick to what you can manage and still have a rich and fun experience! All in all, a wonderful game I'd recommend to both casual players and hardcore puzzle solvers!

Si je ne devais emporter qu'un seul jeu avec moi sur une ile deserte , ca serait celui là : BLACKSHIFT !!! Il y a tout ce qu'il faut dans BLACKSHIFT : reflexion, aventure, intellectuellement stimulant, dexterité, enigmes , de la créativté : possibilité de creer soi-meme des niveaux et de les soumettre au monde entier !!! Il y a aussi une messagerie pour nous prévenir quand quelqu'un joue un de nos propres Levels publiés, quand quelqu'un le gagne, ou encore quand quelqu'un le gagne en battant ton record. Le jeu presente 100 levels officiels, auxquels s'ajoutent des centaines de levels créés par des joueurs du monde entier. Il ya des trucs secrets à trouver, des niveaux bonus au dela des 100, etc... On peut meme regarder comment tel ou tel joueur a gagné notre level, on peut mettre le replay au ralenti ou en accéléré !!! Pour moi, ce jeu créé par Robin Allen (Hapland 1, 2, et 3) est vraiment LE JEU PARFAIT !!! Je le recommande fortement

A true hidden gem. Behind these 'very indie-game looking' graphics lies a deceptively clever, powerful logic-puzzle game. Been following this game for a very long time, from the original Blackshift, to Netshift, all the way till now. So my actual playing time isn't quite accurate. One of the things I love about games like Blackshift is its ability to take certain game elements (objects, enemies, switches etc), and find at least 20 different ways of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ your mind with them, often times in the same level. For example, that rolling barrel might be a hazard to your ship. Next minute that same barrel might be your ticket out of a locked room. Then all of a sudden you find that rolling barrel is now part of a automated 'traffic light' system made of a combination of the game's many elements, while simultaneously blocking one of two exits out of the next room, upon which you'll now need that same barrel to detonate the mine blocking your only other exit. Or how about a room of Sokoban-style blocks that stick together when you push them into each other. Now of course you have to push each block through this maze-like room (without trapping them) in order to trigger some switches to unlock the exit. But you find that you're missing a key... Oh, there's a key behind a row of lasers, I'll just push these blocks into a row in order to block the lasers. But wait, I need these blocks to activate the switches! And they're on opposite sides of the room! How will I now separate these blocks into individual units again to trigger the switches?? Maybe I wasn't meant to use those blocks at all....but maybe I was! But how?? Blackshift has an extremely wide variety of levels. Some are very standard, linear 'unlock the next room' style levels. Some are quite action orientated, like a maze of floating orbs tracking you down like Pacman ghosts. Many are often open-ended, non-linear, logic-based puzzles that can often challenge you to think outside the box. Some of them require careful coordination, timing or precision in order to make it through. Every now and then you'll come across what seems like a very simple level, but you spend ages scratching your head at what the ♥♥♥♥ you're actually meant to do, and end up facepalming when you discover the solution hidden in plain sight, or discover a nice hidden trick you would've never thought of. Referring to my original point, LITERALLY all of these different variety of levels can be achieved using nothing more than a bunch of Sokoban blocks and at least one other game element, which is where the Level Pit comes in! Find new, and expressive ways of creatively ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ your best mate's ex...uh- in the head, I mean brain...mind? With the build-in level editor! Or smash your keyboard/controller in about 20 different ways as you compete for the best times on other community levels. Or if you find campaign too difficult then i guess you could always build a self-completing roller-coaster with EXPLOSIONSSS and other near misses. Highly recommended, get this game!

As someone who played the original Blackshift 15 years ago, this game is a fantastic successor! If you like solving mazes with different mechanics, this is for you! It's challenging enough to keep you thinking, and with new mechanics the further in you go, it doesn't get stale. The level editor is an added bonus, so making your own should keep you infinitely busy, if you're into that sort of thing.

Easy gameplay. The perfect combination of challenging and engaging.

I'd been wondering what happened to this game, so it's great to see that it released in such a strong state! As far as Chip's Challenge like puzzle games go, Blackshift is probably the strongest one I've played. I want to especially praise the extremely good puzzle design and difficulty curve. The puzzles all make sense after moderate thought, and are very satisfying to complete. The inclusion of optional secret items allows for the inclusion of harder challenges, and they tend to be very well-integrated into a puzzle, producing a very impressive effect of a single game element being multiple puzzles at the same time. Best of all, the level of hard block-pushing puzzle in this game is quite mild, which is great because I never like that kind of thing. Usually the block-pushing elements here are simple, but require thinking cleverly, which works a lot better in my opinion than making your players play Sokoban. As far as the price and time to beat, I think I'd estimate this as a ten-hour game (excluding player-made levels), so the price definitely seems correct to me for such a well-handcrafted experience. I've never seen this go on sale, but full price is worth it if you enjoy puzzle games similar to Chip's Challenge.

On September 22nd, 2020 the game Chip's Challenge became free on Steam. In Chip's Challenge you control a character on a tile grid and solve a series of puzzles around moving blocks, opening doors, using tools, avoiding enemies, etc. to reach an end. Here's the thing, Chip's Challenge is now thirty years old and shows its age. Puzzle design that seemed engaging and exciting to me in 1995 is now tedious and dull. The joy has worn off. On September 22nd, 2020 the game Blackshift published on Steam. Blackshift is Chip's Challenge if it were, well, still good. The base description of the mechanics are the same (ok, you blow up a thing instead of finding an exit) but the "etc." above keeps on going and going. Even as far as the 98th level new ideas are being added. Puzzles are often creative and surprising. Sure, across 100 levels not all are going to be winners, but by and large figuring out a level is a joy. Every time you beat one you just [i]have[/i] to peek at the next one to see what it has to offer. And then you're there and you just [i]have[/i] to give it a try. Then suddenly it's hours later than when you wanted to stop playing.

There is a solid quarter second or so of input lag between when you press a key and when your character moves on the screen. This may not sound like an issue for a puzzle game, but there are many, MANY instances in the game where strict timing input is required. This input delay makes these sections EXTREMELY frustrating and borderline unplayable at times... It's nearly impossible to come to a stop on a square when you absolutely have to. This design decision appears to be intentional as pause buffering somehow buffers the input delay as well. I can move left on a tile, pause half-way through moving, release the left arrow key and my character will carry on moving to to the second tile over. It baffles me how it was programmed this way. If the developer were to do fix this one extremely blatant issue then the game would become infinitely more playable and the game would actually be decent. The puzzles themselves are decent and actually pretty good at times.

Best puzzle game on Steam!

After getting all 100 Normal and the 3 secrets Levels, it's with the Level pit even more fun when you think you did finished the game.