[b][Disclaimer: This key was obtained by the developer for Save or Quit for the purpose of review.][/b]
Sometimes on Steam you may find a diamond in the rough title worth its time; sometimes, however, whatever fondness you may have first seen gets grounded into dust from sheer frustration. Only through the mire of many faults to see what greatness was achieved, however brief, can you really form a genuine opinion.
Dimension Jump is a title where after the initial 20 levels teach you the fundamentals you begin to see some kindlings of brilliance both intended or otherwise. Unfortunately, as much as I would like to state the game’s problems are towards me and my preferences as I reached fifty out of the ninety levels, there are issues, technical and at the core of the gameplay, that makes this game a hard sell save for a very, very niche puzzle audience. The kind of person who will love screen-shaping and dimension-changing puzzles combined with reflex based challenges and precise platforming, then memorizing those patterns or routes for speedrunning, or those who desire to rethink how to tackle harder levels with other collectables as completionists. For those people, there are enough challenging and innovative puzzles to sate your curiosity and a level-editor to sate your sadism towards others.
[h1]P stands for Puzzle, Precision or Perfection?[/h1]
Now perhaps the initial problem many people will come across is when they load up the game finding only a third or a fourth of the screen is occupied, nor can you scale the screen-size in window mode to remedy this matter. It’s unfortunately something I was unable to address, and if you struggle with reading your monitor when displayed with small symbols on the screen screen, especially for precise platforming, it’s a deal-breaker. According to the developer, this is a Gamemaker 1.4 engine issue when the engine does not detect your hardware’s DPI (dots per inch), and after trying the developer’s suggestion of going into the Personalize settings from your desktop to change it manually the problem persisted. Technical issues aren’t really my forte, and I’m perhaps more willing to accept this matter as an engine issue as the developer states; however, if it also affects the gameplay in a drastic manner, then I cannot ignore the matter, and that’s where the problems accrue.
What makes this scaling issue devastating is how much it affects the game’s minimalistic design. Although there is some charm from the simplicity of pixels—I wouldn’t call it pixel-art, only pixels—the information it obscures due to its small size can make certain puzzles far more difficult than intended. When facing new mechanics like the teleporting blobs, it can be difficult to learn which direction you will face as you fall. Combined with any new or existing mechanics as well as the emphasis on speed and platforming, the result is often a mess. This outcome often happens with levels littered with screen-rotation boxes where they display their directions in a parabola that changes when you rotate. With no time to react, it's nearly impossible to respond to an obstacle or a tricky dimension swap without memorization.
For the first half, these problems will only be a minor annoyance, but later puzzles like escorting the box around around the rotating room can become a bane. Levels that have you pushing boxes or rationing the teleportation uses are the worst offenders, and they don’t need to be as punishing to work. In addition to other mechanics that exist to make the game more accessible such as the slow-motion teleport, which makes things more difficult because it is mapped to CTRL, and boxes that must be reset to try again, the game demands too much for every mistake.
Sometimes these challenges feel deliberate and it can, admittedly, be satisfying to overcome a level that had you bashing your head against the wall like Super Meat Boy. Unlike that game, the platforming here is so anemic that it doesn’t feel rewarding. Controls also feel too stiff, especially when swapping dimensions on the fly, and the screen effects when swapping dimensions rapidly will strain some people’s eyes. If you play the game slow or take you take, you can avoid a lot of these issues, but it’s not how the game was really meant to be played. What makes this game more noteworthy than your initial impressions are the few interesting levels such as Countdown where you are swapping dimensions to progress while avoiding to block the entrance. These few moments are when the game truly shines.
[h1]The Little Game That Thought It Could, But It Cannot[/h1]
Unlike other subpar puzzle games on Steam, Dimensional Jump has the benefit that it comes with a level-editor and Steam Workshop support to add more content, and even if you’re not interested in user-made content, the initial ninety levels will tax you for four or five hours depending on your tolerance for these challenges. However, you should be forewarned that the level-editor uses your keyboard, not your mouse, so even in that regard the ability to create levels will be annoying. While there isn’t anything noteworthy to create a community as creative like with Mario Maker, there are a few interesting exploits that may lead to some interesting levels such as gaining momentum when swapping through solid objects as a glitch ladder. Given the final quality of the game and its many issues, it’s hard to determine whether that was deliberate or an accident.
One good idea under the mire of two more that requires a perspective change--this statement is perhaps the most solid description of Dimension Jump. It’s unfortunate because when everything does come together there is a solid platformer here that not only can you see but you can also create and play those glimpses into reality.
