English Country Tune

While [B]increpare games[/B] only has three products listed on Steam, the person behind the name, Stephen Lavelle is (in)famous for his creativity and his volume of output. According to Wikipedia, he has released more than 400 games, mostly freeware - and three commercial games; [B]English country tune[/B] is the first of the three. Apparently, Stephen has heard about the idea of gentle introduction to difficult puzzles, and the first three levels look like a stylish but slightly weird (the protagonist is a flat square) Sokoban-clone. Then maybe he thought "let's not overdo gentle", and level 4 hits you with two of the game's landmark features - the 3D movement and the relative gravity. Regarding the movement, the game seemingly effortlessly translates the two axes (up/down and left/right) into the three "real" axes - such a solution should have no right to work, but it actually does, and very well. It's possible to get yourself confused and misnavigate, but due to the unlimited undo and the (almost) complete lack of timing needed in the game, it's never an issue. The relative gravity is... weird. Your first creature (crate in Sokoban), the Larva is not affected by real gravity, but when you push it, it will behave as if it was, and the direction of the gravity is relative to the direction of the push... I mean, who can come up with such an idea? :D As you're in real 3D, this means a Larva that hopelessly falls out of the world when pushed in one direction may move easily to safety when pushed from another. I have to admit, even after finishing the game, I can't say I 100% wrapped my mind around the idea, but the puzzle design implications are just awesome. Moving forward, the game introduces more creatures and more mechanics, and as you could expect, it's rich in "a-ha" moments - although in [B]English country tune[/B], these are more like "wtf" moments, "holy s**t this is brilliant" moments and "oh my god this guy is insane" moments :D As much as I love the game for its cool visual design and its (mostly) amazing puzzles, I can't say it's without flaws. While the controls are brilliant and the automatic camera usually does a great job, it sometimes doesn't, and you cannot freely choose your viewpoint - you can yank the camera around, but it always returns to its default position. Also, some of the puzzles feel a bit stale, and there are a few which feel downright silly (I took a particular dislike to the Resonator ones, but ymmv). However, faults or not, [B]English country tune[/B] is a very ambitious game which is almost fully successful in reaching its rather high targets. The creator is a puzzle making genius, but it's also obvious from the game that he spent a lot of time tuning and refining the puzzles, and most of them present you with fresh and unique challenges. It's a hard game, rather unforgiving at times, you need to dedicate time and attention to it - but when you do, it's one of the most rewarding experience in the already pretty rich indie puzzle scene. Highly recommended.

Nice Sokoban 3D puzzles, but the interface is terrible. It won't even marked finished puzzles as finished, you have to guess where you are and what's next. There are better alternatives.

The ⚫️🔲 Bundle(2/8):English Country Tune 3D综合类推箱 体量：★☆☆☆☆：6h左右 难度：★★★☆☆：单面种树对我来说有点难，卡了好久 机制：★★★★☆：相当丰富，7种机制17个章节

玩之前: 蛤? 看到UI: 蛤? 解謎中: 蛤? 玩完後: 蛤? 這就是這麼抽象的一款解謎遊戲

Really difficult puzzle game. One of those that you play for 30 minutes every month and beat after 8 years

[b]TLDR[/b] 3D grid-based obstacle puzzler with varied, mind-bending mechanics. Looks intimidating at first, but clever level design keeps it accessible and rewarding [17/20⭐, 10h🏅, 4/5💡] [b]Context[/b] English Country Tune is a an abstract 3D obstacle puzzle game with a surreal tone. It looks rough and throws seemingly crazy mechanics at you. But somehow it all just clicks, thanks largely to cleverly designed levels (not surprising, as this is from the creator of [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/macwh/recommended/353540/]Stephen’s Sausage Roll[/url]). [b]Writing[/b] There is none, the game is entirely abstract. The most narrative you’ll get is cryptic world names that invite you to hallucinate square things as “whales,” floating orbs as “larvae,” and other shapes as “plants.” [b]Aesthetics[/b] Although the are visuals minimal and abstract, the has a surreal and sightly tense atmosphere promoted by the jittery visuals and droning ambient soundtrack (even the world hub and level selection feel unhinged). [b]Gameplay[/b] At its core this is an obstacle pushing game in a 3D grid. A 3D sokoban-style game can already be challenging, but here each world introduces additional mechanics, some of which mind-bending. For instance, you start pushing “larvae” that fall based on the direction of your movement; then you push “whales”, non-falling obstacles with an interactible area that extends infinitely; soon enough you’re using “w”hales to move “larvae”, where the “larvae” fall depending on how you pushed the “whale”. Honestly, this had all the potential for a frustrating experience, but it ends up being intuitive. I can only explain this with the level design, which is clever without being punishing. In fact, the game actually leans to the “easy” side of the spectrum (once you wrap your head around the mechanics). Levels are bite-sized (and that you can undo indefinitely, including through resets). It also doesn’t get boring, since each world introduces a different mechanic. If I had to point a flaw it would be the the fixed camera that sometimes obscures important parts of the level. You can fail levels and enter deadlocks, but you can just reset the level without penalty. The game autosaves progress but not the individual puzzle state. [b]Value[/b] It took me about 10h to beat the ~100 levels spread across ~15 worlds. Worlds and levels unlock as you progress, and although not completely linear, often only a couple are open at a time. You can always revisit previous levels. There are no achievements or extras. [quote][i]For more puzzle-game reviews and curated lists check out the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/43326007-The-Clueless-Adventurer-Puzzle-Trove/]Puzzle Trove[/url].[/i][/quote]

video games can in fact be art

A very unique puzzler that challenges your 3D spatial awareness. The highlight for me is the two levels where Stephen asks the player to create his own level such that a solution is achievable. But now that he has shown his cards that there is a level editor, we the people demand a user created level feature!