The Long Gate

Technical jank and UI jank can be forgiven, but the real problem is that the puzzle design is awful. This game's idea of a puzzle is a binary addition calculator, already laid out for you. You do not need to, and cannot fiddle with the calculator in any way. All you need to do is generate the input, through a long and tedious process which is entirely identical across multiple puzzles. And you need to do this four times. That's not a puzzle for the player, it's a puzzle for the designer. For the player it's a homework assignment. There are some interesting ideas in there, to be sure. But it's squandered on tedious puzzle design where all the interesting stuff is already hardcoded.

A logic game that covers a wide range of circuits and electronics topics. It's a good learning experience, and makes it really interesting to play with concepts that are normally kinda bland. I would recommend this if you really like logical puzzles, want to play with computing in an alternate way, or want to get more of an understanding how electronics work. I would probably not recommend this if you are looking for easy puzzles, or are looking for a story game. This game's about the puzzles, and expect them to take some effort.

This 2020 (!!) game suffers from a major design problem: Already on "level 2", you are being asked to solve complex puzzles that use the "LATCH" mechanism, with no introductory 'easy' variant that would explain what the hell it actually does. This is very common for single-designer puzzle games, where the author over-estimates what the players know or how they think. The reason why I'm mentioning the year when this game came out is that this is 13 years after PORTAL, which spends the first 5 or so levels without giving you the portal gun, then another bunch of levels before it gives you full control over both portals. This is because the developers actually tested the game with real humans and saw how much ordinary people struggle getting the basic concepts. So they toned it down more and more until testers were actually able to get through. In The Long Gate, you will unfortunately solve few puzzles (such as the Floor 2) by accident, with no real understanding WHY your 'clickety click click gosh darn it work click' approach worked. And the moment you do solve it, the game / designer incorrectly assumes that you KNOW why it worked, so you are expected to then use that knowledge in future puzzles, which get even harder. The game needs a massive rework of the early stages. Apparently, almost everybody goes to the Guide section and reads the solutions, which is probably not what the developer wanted. Edit after progressing further: Through sheer luck and perseverance, I managed to get roughly to the half-point of the game, until I reached a puzzle that is a HARD STOP. This puzzle contains a brand new component that is also a black box (i.e., you cannot look inside to see how it works, internally), it _may_ be on a timer, and it's controlled by 6 buttons. You need to use this device correctly 8 times, otherwise it resets to the beginning. Without solving this puzzle, it is impossible to proceed further. There is no "Reset to initial configuration" function in the game, and I managed to get the puzzle into a state from which the solution in the guides section does not work, so I guess I am out of luck. I've spoken about this game with people on the Discord who are apparently well-versed in engineering and circuits, but even they admit that frequently, they had no idea how the puzzles work. I remain convinced this game's design is deeply flawed.

Just finished the game. Excellent! I was blocking at one segment and by chance I realized that there was a specific thing to do before searching for help on the internet. Nice quantum level. I did not understand everything, and far from me to understand how a quantum computer works. I just made the inputs mostly by intuition, which was apparently sufficient. I wish i could have had this game when learning about boolean algebra, pass-by filters, binary conversion, RLC circuits or Q-bits at early years of university.

Brilliant transformation of mathematics and physics into puzzles. Missing only few quality of life improvements, mostly in visual and control department.

[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVPONDN5XJE] Video Review [/url] A really fascinating game with gorgeous visuals and interesting puzzles based on real life technical concepts (logic gates, binary, circuitry, analogue and digital electronics etc.). The scale of the game's setting and the realism in the puzzle mechanics makes you feel like some sort of space age engineer working your way through some grand, futuristic, sci-fi environment. Definitely has a high and quite academic barrier for entry (you will need to know what a logic gate is first before you play..) but if you can hurdle that then there's a very interesting and atmospheric game here for you. Not perfect, and has some clunkiness/slowness at times, but very strong overall

Amazing game! Beautiful areas, immersive soundtrack, and super challenging puzzles! It took me many hours to figure out the mechanics, but it was all worthy it! Oh, and the secrets, they are so cool! Prepare yourself for some shocking moments!

TL;DR: Buy this game if you want to solve challenging and logical puzzles! You'll need some patience to learn what it wants to teach you, but it's worth it! Full review: The Long Gate is an enjoyable and minimalist puzzle game. It's a game where every time I walk into a new area I'm like "oh ♥♥♥♥ off" because the problems seem too difficult at first glance. At the same time, I've yet to come across a puzzle that hasn't made sense, or that I couldn't solve, or that I didn't enjoy solving. I say this in the best way possible. There's a great satisfaction in solving the Long Gate's puzzles because the solutions often aren't immediately apparent, but they truly do make sense. When you work out the correct solution or sequence of actions, there's a strong sense of reward for the patience you showed while trying to make sense of the unfamiliar. I've not yet finished the game, but have really enjoyed it so far. It's been quite stress relieving and I find myself coming back to it quite easily. I did a year of programming back at the start of uni a few years back, so I was familiar with some of the concepts the game introduces early on. I've also dabbled with redstone projects in Minecraft and the puzzles you solve with circuitry in The Long Gate are sort of similar. If you don't want to learn binary, or bit flipping or how circuits work, then this isn't the game for you. If you can't accept that this game was made by a very small team and isn't perfect, then this game isn't for you. Otherwise, the puzzles definitely are challenging, but I do think that keen newcomers unafraid of a challenge could give this a go and enjoy themselves. I've found the game runs alright too on a gtx 1070 and ryzen 3600, though I do wish there was a cleaner AA implementation. The highest setting obscures texture detail in the distance, but turning this down introduces aliasing. With that said, it's still a good looking game with a clear atmosphere that is well supported by a low-key soundtrack. The sound effects are very mechanical too, which really adds to the cyber-industrial aesthetic of the game. I think this game is very underrated and definitely recommend giving it a go. I bought it at full price and am very happy with my purchase :).

Challenging and straight forward, non-stop puzzles for those who like to solve them for the sake of solving, don't expect a big reward for it!