Cyclical Redundancy is a photorealistic, point-and-click puzzle adventure that shifts between dream, waking life, and parallel universes. Players explore richly rendered environments across four distinct times of day—morning, afternoon, evening, and midnight—collecting items, uncovering subtle clues, and solving layered puzzles across realities. To reach the true ending you must complete all tasks and correctly answer a final, narrative-critical question. The game blends immersive ambient music, challenging observation-based puzzles, and an overarching mystery that itself is a meta-puzzle to decode.
Detailed Description:
Core Loop
Explore highly realistic scenes in waking life, a dreamscape park, and an alternate parallel universe.
Interact with objects, pick up usable items, and examine details closely.
Travel between dream and waking states and hop into a parallel world to find game pieces.
Some items and interactions appear only during a specific time of day or only in a particular universe, requiring repeated visits across morning, afternoon, evening, midnight, and multiple realities.
Parallel Universe
A parallel universe presents an alternate version of the same location.
Some puzzles require synthesizing evidence from different universes to form a complete solution or to reveal hidden correspondences.
Times of Day & Unique Interactions
Four time windows (morning, afternoon, evening, midnight) each present unique, time-locked objects and interactions.
An object present in a morning scene of may not be present in the evening.
Cycling through times, states, and universes is often necessary to assemble full information and items needed to advance.
Puzzles & Clues
Challenging, multi-step puzzles emphasize observation, extrapolation, and cross-referencing clues across times, states, and universes.
The game itself is meta-puzzled: narrative fragments are scattered throughout the game and must be interpreted collectively to understand the final question.
Missing a universe-specific clue can block the path to the canonical ending; thorough exploration across realities is rewarded.
Lab Analysis
Presentation & Atmosphere
Photorealistic renders anchor each game location in believable detail.
Immersive ambient music dynamically shifts with game locations.
Environmental storytelling and fine visual detail reward patient, attentive play.
Endgame
Player Experience
For players who enjoy methodical exploration, detective-style deduction, and puzzles that span states of mind and entire realities, Cyclical Redundancy delivers a contemplative journey through layered reality and symbolism.
