I’ve played my fair share of puzzle games involving rotating items and boxes, but Q.U.B.E: Director’s Cut takes this to another level, as it combines a story into solving puzzles – as you mysteriously wake up within a white room filled with coloured blocks. The task however is quite simple, you must escape each room using logic, which in return provides you with answers.

As you progress, a female’s voice from the International Space Station is heard throughout, filling your memory with details of what happened as to where you are now.

Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut gameplay 2
You’ll be seeing a lot of these.

Most of the puzzles offered throughout are fairly easy to solve and the ones which do take a little more time to work out, don’t leave you feeling frustrated. The controls are also really simple, since all you’re really asked to do is position the blocks so you can progress. Things get more difficult later on though, as rotating walls come into play and some sections have you guiding a green luminous ball into a slot, in order to open a door. I guess what was good, was the level of variety behind each level.

The first-person aspect also fits in neatly with the genre, as you can get up close and see what needs to be done, in terms of activating cube blocks and timing it to perfection. Q.U.B.E is one of them puzzle games where you can sit back and relax, rather than furiously bashing away at your controller. I took my time with this title and it rewarded me with a soothing and challenging experience.

The true challenge comes in understanding how each block is interacted with – as red blocks are singular and lift up to maximum of three times, while the yellow block works  in an ascending fashion like a staircase almost, however the block you select goes the highest. Blue blocks propel you forward like a jump pad and purple arrows highlighted on the walls rotate them. You’ll pick all this up fairly quickly, as it’s introduced to you like a tutorial almost.

Q.U.B.E: Director's Cut art style
The art style even changes.

The presentation of the game is also quite nice, as it feels clean and crisp with a white background used on the walls of each room and bright colours used to highlight points of interest such as buttons and blocks which can be altered. There’s nothing too complex about it, which I think works really well, as sometimes too much can be overbearing.

It has to be said that although the game felt satisfying, the overall length is about 2-3 hours, which I guess you could say isn’t bad when the game is on the store for £7.99. There’s also the additional “Against The Qlock” mode, which grants you an extra 10 levels against a timer.

Q.U.B.E: Director’s Cut is a good little puzzle title, which may not be for everyone, but has some decent gameplay. The whole idea of using cubes to solve puzzles presents a challenge in itself and I really like these type of games, which use the environment. I’d fully recommend this one for the puzzle lovers out there.

Pros

  • Wasn’t frustrating but still challenging
  • Against the Qlock is a lot of fun
  • The art style was clean and crisp

Cons

  • Short amount of gameplay
  • Understandably, not for everyone

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