Rewind

[h1]Introduction[/h1] Rewind is an attention grabbing modern puzzler. Every single puzzle is solved using the “Rewind” ability. This basically means first doing the actions which you need to perform in order to progress then resetting the level and replaying it with the help of a clone. The Rewind clone of yourself will repeat the actions you recorded while your current self can perform other actions. That’s the basics of gameplay. As you make your way through the levels, the difficulty increases with a suitable curve. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] You awaken to find yourself alone in a strange area with no idea how you got there. You simply have a lingering memory that you were hungry, cold and tired before waking up in this laboratory-like setting. You wander aimlessly through the corridors in an attempt to find your way out. Suddenly you are greeted by a disembodied voice, which actually sounds surprised to see you running around inside those chambers. Fortunately, it is a friendly voice that tries to help you make it to the exit at the top of the tower. You are introduced to the “Rewind” system that lets you record actions that replay to assist you reach the exit of the chamber. Originally, you start with the ability to make one clone of yourself, and any mistakes you make in recording typically wipes out all progress for the level. Eventually you upgrade to having an additional clone and later still you gain the ability to selectively wipe the clone recordings. To help correct minor errors you are able to rewind the current recording back to a point before you made the error provided you have not finalized the recording, otherwise, you have to re-record all the actions again for that particular clone. The gameplay itself involves elements you typically find in a Puzzler of this nature. Buttons to press and floor tiles to hold down. The recordings add a bit of timer element to the game as well as increase the challenge. You need to figure out what you need to do and when you need it done so that it syncs up with your next clones actions. You must try to time and predict how long you need to hold the current tile down before moving on to the next one. Failure to time it properly will cause the recorded clone to fall off the current track and no longer be able to complete its task or else it will cause it to premature press or release the tiles it controls. To further hamper your success, some levels also include enemy soldiers who want to shoot you with their laser pistols. Luckily, unlike in other Puzzler games such as Portal, you will find a laser gun of your own to shoot them right back. No need to worry about lining up pesky portals to deal with the enemy, you can just blast them yourself… or have one of your clones do it! Another element that is unique is that even though games like The Talos Principle have their own recorded clone to assist you with some levels, Rewind lets you either shoot those clones to make them stop doing what they are doing or shoot them just for fun! Also, you can strap an explosive backpack on a clone and send it to blow up a pesky grid blocking your way. I can tell you, playing Rewind is quite a blast. The game consists of seven levels, each level consisting of seven stages. The difficulty increases slowly enough so those new to Puzzler games will be able to work their way through it without issue yet fast enough that veteran Puzzlers, like myself, will not get bored as the game catches up to “our speed.” The last stage of the last level has two solutions, the rest of the levels only have a singular solution. That is really one of my only complaints for the game and it is a minor one. To help make up for that small shortcoming the game also offers Time Trials and Clone Trials after you complete the stage. Time Trials force you to solve the level as fast as you can in order to beat the current record time. Clone Trials are similar except it limits you to the number of clones you are allowed to use to solve the level. Both of these help pad out your play time for this title which is a good thing as I found the game to be rather short having beaten the main levels in a little under three hours. Now I don’t really believe that this is the norm or the fault of the game itself. It is quite likely that it’s the fact that I have played so many Puzzlers that the solutions just popped out for me each time. The dialogue between the female protagonist and the disembodied male voice flow together well. They add a lot of enjoyment to the game. Although the story seems a little disconnected from the game itself it was still well worth including! I won’t spoil what the story is about, but basically it involves a lot of paperwork being done. As a person who deals with a lot of paperwork, I found those jokes to be quite amusing. Overall, if you are Puzzler fan like myself, you would be doing yourself a disservice by not giving Rewind a try. It fits well in the Genre and isn’t just a clone of other Puzzlers despite using similar mechanics. [list]Pros: [*]Rewind’s Clone mechanics made solving puzzles quite enjoyable as it made you really think about what you needed to happen [*]Nice visuals and sounds [*]Enjoyable voiced story with pleasant, clear spoken voices [*]Despite relying on a single primary mechanic, the games levels do not feel repetitive [*]Time Trials and Clone Trials to extend gameplay Cons: [*]Short: I beat the game in less than three hours. It could just be that I am too darn clever due to playing so many other Puzzlers that Rewind wasn’t able to stump me enough to slow me down[/list]

I was always a pretty practical kid. When asked what my ideal superpower would be if I had one, my mind would always instantly think of either clones or the ability to control time. Well, what might happen if you could combine [i]both[/i] of those powers? A little puzzle game called Rewind I suppose. [h1]The Breakdown[/h1] [i]Antichamber[/i]. [i]The Ball[/i]. [i]Colortone[/i]. What do these games all have in common? Well, they're a helluva' lot like a little obscure game called Portal. We've all probably heard of it by now. If you somehow haven't though, it's a first-person puzzle platformer from almost a decade ago (wow, it's weird to think that!). It came out at a perfect time, when pretty much nothing like it was on the market, besides similar mods for other games. Well, flash forward nearly a decade later and it seems like the "Portal-esque genre of first-person puzzlers is starting to become more and more saturated. FPPs (I'm lazy so that's what I'll call them) come out all the time, so what makes this one unique? Well, it's fresh and brings some interesting ideas to the table. See, Rewind works off of the notion that it's a co-op game that you play by yourself. The game gives you the tools to solve multi-player puzzles in the form of 2 extra clones and the ability to manipulate time. You can't fast forward at all, but you certainly are able to "rewind" to correct mistakes or move back to the start so you can use a different clone - hence, the game's title. Now, normally I'm skeptical of games that rely off of a single gimmick, but [i]Rewind[/i] quickly subdued my worries. Similar to 2007's Portal, I was instantly engrossed by not only the central mechanic of the game, but also its setting. Upon starting the game, you're thrust into an unfamiliar laboratory-type area with little to no explanation about your surroundings. Even by the end of the game, it's still pretty ambiguous in regards to when and where this game takes place. Why am I here? And who is that guy who talks to my character between rooms? Most questions, narrative-wise, that I had with Rewind were never answered while playing, and that's kind of a shame. I feel as if the game wanted to provide this immensely interesting sci-fi story to complement its unique gameplay but just wasn't able to in the time provided. Only one major event really happens in the story (besides an event that occurred prior the start of the game), and it's at the very end anyway. None of it is explained either, though I think I admittedly did miss a possible alternate ending that could have fleshed out the story slightly more. See, the way that the game works is that each level has one solution (generally pretty simple, or at least straightforward). Once you reach the solution, the door opens and you continue onwards to the next level. However, the final level has [i]two[/i] solutions from what I understand, so I think each one leads to a different ending. I breezed past most of the game, but for some reason the final level really stumped me. It got me stuck for about a half hour or so, which was about 1/6 of my total playtime actually, considering the game is only about 3 hours long. What I assume is the "bad ending" is hard enough to get, but to reach (what I assume is) the "good ending" takes some extra brain cells that I'm just probably lacking. Perhaps one day I'll go back and get the other ending, but for now I'll leave an ambiguous "???" when it comes to what I can make of the story of the game. In terms of Rewind's visuals, it's nothing spectacular, but the textures, lighting, and designs of the main characters and enemies (which are only there for puzzle purposes) do their job decently I suppose. It's an Unreal Engine game, so of course that's to be expected. Sound-wise, the game has two voice actors actually - both do fine jobs, though again, nothing exceptional. The music for the game is similarly "eh". It does its job; nothing more and nothing less. So, despite all my negative criticisms, why am I still recommending Rewind? Well, perhaps it's to make a statement: make more unique games like this! That goes out to anyone, not just the developer (who is mostly only one person I think!) of this game. Perhaps it's also because the concept of mixing time manipulation with clones is just right up my alley. However, perhaps more than anything it's because this game is actually fairly good. Sure, there's some problems, but I think overall Rewind is at least something a little special, and hey - it's pretty fun too! [h1]Pros[/h1] [list] [*]Unique mix of time-manipulation and cloning mechanics to solve creative yet straightforward puzzles. [*]Extra replayability in the form of Time Trials and Clone Trials - two modes that add an extra challenge to the normal levels. [*]49 levels total (42 without the 7 tutorial levels) [*]Decent variety of game mechanics: clones, time manipulation, guns (or rather 1 gun), enemies, elevators, moving platforms, switches, appearing/disappearing platforms, etc. [*]Mysterious story revolving around the main character waking up in a mysterious facility. [*]Steam achievements. [/list] [h1]Cons[/h1] [list] [*]Short length - only 3 hours long or so! [*]The game is generally pretty easy, or at least definitely very straightforward in its level design. Each level uses only a small handful of mechanics to get you to the exit. [*]The visuals, voice acting, and music certainly aren't incredible, but they do their job just fine. [*]Story is very simple and doesn't really go anywhere; nor does it explain most of the questions I had at all. Expect very little plot-wise. [*]Little to no secrets as far as I could tell. Kind of disappointed about that. [/list] [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Rewind is a fun, unique first-person puzzle platformer with a very unique mechanic. Nothing about is particularly exceptional besides that, yet the game itself is still pretty enjoyable, and for that fact alone I'd give it a solid recommendation. [h1][b]Final Verdict: 7/10[/b][/h1]

A First Person Time Travel Puzzle Game! Puzzle design: Pretty decent actually. Not amazing, but way better than a lot of other puzzle games I played. Most of the levels are fairly straight-forward, but some will make you stop and think and make you feel like you accomplished something after completing them. There are almost no annyoing levels ("do this simple trick 10 times!" "backtrack the same path back and forth multiple times!") and most levels are short and can be solved in less then a minute if you know the solution already. The tutorial levels are probably the weakest one in the game since they are super hand-holdy (the game actually walks you through the first few levels step-by-step). Mechanics: The time-travel mechanics work fairly well. The animations could be sped up a bit and unfortunately sometimes your clones get out of sync when you rewind time (which is a freaking shame in a time-travel puzzle game). You can avoid those problems by playing carefully and not rushing every move you do, so it is not game breaking. A lot of levels also include a gun (and enemys to shoot). This is not a shooter though. The gun and the enemys just server as an additional puzzle mechanic and it works quite well for that. Audio/Video/Performance: The game is certainly not a high-quality-big-budget product. The graphics are servable and the voice acting is not annoying, so it does not hamper the puzzle experience. The game runs very well and should be fine on lower-spec machines as well. Story: The story seems interesting but is kind of disconnected from the gameplay. It's a dialoge between the protagonist and another character. However they mostly talk about how you got here and now what you are doing here. This results in a situation where you could just listen to the story without even playing the game and it would make totally sense. Commented gameplay by me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZB0FfWE1tA

This game brings a whole new meaning to the term "playing with yourself"! But in all seriousness this game brings a fun and interesting new way to think and play into the gaming world. This game really got me thinking about timing and positioning for the future you to progress to the next level/area. Not only are you striving to complete the simple and challenging puzzles, but you're also helping/hindering yourself around each new corner. "Did I move to soon?" As I thought to myself. "Is this where I needed to stand?". I game handles smoothly, a few graphical/texture bugs but not bad. Animations for the character could use a bit more work, in my opinion. Level design was unique and fluid, although I purposely tried to leave areas and got stuck (my own fault not the games). Definitely a grab if you would like a fun game that makes you think ahead, albeit a little short for my taste. I'd give it a 8/10!

This game is fun :) The puzzle solving starts to get tricky after awhile, but by then you have a good idea on what to do to figure it out on your own. PS ... Great to play a game thats not buggy on its first day !!

The whole rewind time and play with your clones is a concept I've seen before though mostly on flash games. This is an ok take on it but doesn't feel like a well playtested game. The puzzles get repetitive and the story segments aren't very interesting. I think it would be better with a more humorous tone like portal rather than taking itself so seriously. Graphics are pretty good for a puzzle game but it failed to really grab me. I might give it another shot if I'm bored. Not quite good enough to recommend. Too bad there's no "meh" button.

Pros: -Good story -Interesting concept -decent graphics -awkward character animations Cons: -Story doesn't have much to do with the game itself -Boring level design -Often gets out of sync, which is pretty inexcusable for this type of game 6/10

Love this game. I'm not a huge gamer and I haven't really played many puzzle games and this is definitely something I can adapt to very easily. Great graphics, everything is fluid. Highly recommend.

I've been waiting for this game for a very long time. It's finally done, and it's very good. It's a pure puzzler about rewinding time and cooperating with recorded versions of your past self, which is a mechanic that's been explored before but never in quite this much detail. It's shorter than I'd like, but it's not too short (4 hours for me, which I think is probably pretty fast because I already knew how to do a lot of stuff.) It's pretty hard. I haven't done the time trials yet, but I might. They look interesting. A word of warning, however: the puzzle solutions in this game require precise execution. I like that, but if you're someone who gets frustrated if you know how to do a puzzle but can't quite get it to work, you're likely to have a bad time.

This game is really fun to play and is based on solving puzzles by making clones of yourself. It has a nice soundtrack, suitably eerie music for its setting and engaging visuals (honestly, I kept jumping along the edges to see more of the world!). The puzzles increase in complexity and the main gameplay style switches half way through to add another layer to the puzzles. The storyline begins with you waking up in a lab with no knowledge of how you got there. A disembodied voice provides some guidance as you make your way through the facility and dialogue between the two characters helps piece fragmented memories together to explain how you came to be where you are. There are two outcomes - be sure to find them both!