Obstruction : VR

I love puzzle games, and I love VR, but I could not penetrate far enough into this game to find anything fun or interesting. There is not enough guidance to even get me past the first handful of puzzles. Feels more like flailing around than puzzle solving. I liked the general idea and I dig the aesthetic, but without some kind of tutorial or clearer feedback, I can not recommend this game at all.

[h1]Experienced on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers[/h1] You can view my gameplay & initial impressions review here (warning: spoilers!): https://youtu.be/LXFSUuoUITQ So I am happy to report that this game works fine on the Oculus Rift with Touch Controllers. I did have fun playing this game and enjoyed the puzzles during my about 1.6 hours of gameplay. However, there is a reason why I didn't play more and that is because I am totally stuck on one of the puzzles and don't see a solution. A lot of the reviews mention this as a minimalist game and that would be a good description. You're basically thrown into this game without an explanation of anything. The graphics are super simple shapes with monotones colors. The Unreal Engine has seldom looked so barren. As far as I can tell, you only use the trigger to pick up and move the cube and press down on the (right) joystick to go on to the next puzzle after solving the puzzle. You can move the cube up or down, left or right, or twist it around on all its side to get a desired result. Usually, you're moving an obstruction out of the way to let you get to your goal (a transparent cube home for your solid white cube). Part of the game is finding the logic to the solution, but it's also a test fine motor skills on some puzzles. You have to fit the cube through tight spaces by having a steady hand. Overall, I had fun ... that is until I got stuck on that one puzzle that I have tried a hundred ways and still don't see a way to the desired destination. Anyways, I did a video walkthrough of the first couple of puzzles. I think seeing those first few puzzles and where I got stuck may be of benefit to you if you enjoy puzzle games in VR and are thinking of purchasing this game. [b]Rate ???/10. I got this on sale for $3.99 USD yesterday. Someone help me please with the solution for the puzzle I'm stuck on![/b]

2 Minute Video Review → https://youtu.be/CC_AX9gZ_fk Obstruction is an abstract puzzle game with a deceptively simple task: get the white cube into the goal. But while the task is simple, the execution is not. In every level, the way you move the cube changes the obstructions blocking the goal. And oftentimes a level will have a new unique sub task that you must complete before you can clear a path to the goal. The visual design is minimal and beautiful. And thankfully there are happy bird sounds playing because sometimes I reach my wits end with frustration in some of these levels. There's over 100 unique levels. And some of them took me upwards of 30 minutes to solve. So there's a ton of puzzling in here. For a huge puzzle game that will absolutely warp your brain. I recommend it.

The developers should read "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman before attempting anymore minimalism. A door doesn't need "PULL" written on it if it has a handle that looks like it can be pulled. A game with an obtuse mechanic unrelated to the physical world needs at least some explanation. I have no idea if I was solving levels correctly or just abusing tracking glitches.

A bit too hard!

Well there are no instructions, you have to figure it out on you own but it turns out to be a really clever VR puzzle concept.

Really cool and unique puzzle game - beautiful simplistic visual style is fantastic in VR - reminds me visually of another neat pancake puzzle game called Antichamber. Gameplay in Obstruction is relatively simple - no teleportation or controlled movement - after you pass each puzzle you move a couple of steps closer to the horizon and the next puzzle appears - movement in game is using the Room Scale. Do take care that you have the space - as I only have a 2.5 x 2.5m playspace and on Level 11 I got stumped for a while as didnt realise i needed to move super close to the wall boundaries to reach the goal... albeit now I know how to do it but my hands aren't steady enough at this time of night to continue! ^^ The gameplay is hard to define but at this point (half hour in) its as if a metaphysical Rubiks Cube bred with a metaphorical game of "Bop It!", and they gave birth to an invisible Don't-touch-the-Wire Game. So... I like it! Neat concept devs - well played :D

I have to agree with the other reviews that said something along the lines of "no instruction" and "flailing." Something about this puzzle game didn't work with me and I think it had to do with the fact that of the ~10 levels I completed, I felt like 5 were basically "figure out which side of the cube makes the blocks smaller" then move your hand in that direction, then repeated two more times for the other dimensions. Then I got to the yellow blocks that rotate and it seemed to make no real sense to me which way to move and there were no hints or tips, so I ended up flailing around trying to meet the objective. I may not have played for very long, but nothing enticed me to play more unfortunately. I think if the controls were more intuitive with more instruction I could have enjoyed this.