REVIEW
DEATH SQUARED
GAME DETAILS
Title : Death Squared Genre : Casual , Indie Platform : PC , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One , Switch [ reviewed ] Developer : SMG Studio Publisher : SMG Studio
I find it a little strange that the first game I get my hands on for the Nintendo Switch is a third-party title , and a puzzle game at that . Console puzzle games have never been my cup of tea , feeling they work best on a portable device . So because this is the Switch and can be played as a portable , I suppose this all works out at the end of the day .
Jumping into the game is a neat experience as SMG Games have built a story mode into the experience that feels a little like that off Portal . The narration and setting really fit each other and helps give what would be your standard puzzle game a unique feel . The voice work the game employs also really helps to flesh out the experience and is funny enough to want you to keep playing to hear what comes up next .
The object of the game is to move the two , or more , square robots of red or blue color onto their respective switches as to trigger the next stage . It doesn ’ t sound like a lot , and it isn ’ t in theory , but Death Squared will really test your brain right from the start . This happens because each stage will not only have you navigating around to your switch , but you ’ ll also be traversing obstacles and all manner of traps . There are also a lot of hidden instant kill areas which force you to try multiple times until you learn each specific stage .
This sort of Super Meatboy-esque gameplay isn ’ t usually my thing , but there is just something about how Death Squared is laid out that makes it work . The game isn ’ t actively trying to screw you over , rather it ’ s all done in a way that will have you laughing and cursing yourself for these silly sort of deaths . The gameplay also throws the complication that each cubes movement will affect other parts of a stage , be that something as simple as activating lasers or something more complex like altering parts of the board itself .
Chances are you are going to see what needs to be done , but finding the correct path and experimenting to find the correct order of steps to get from point A to point B is where the real fun comes into play . A level might be laid out in a very straight forward manner until you realize that moving one block activates and shift other blocks that can lead to your death . And because everything is in 3D you are going to have to think in a dimension that isn ’ t often at play in a puzzle game .
The story mode itself features 80 levels in total for you to get through . Funny enough , the stages don ’ t really feel like they do in something like Portal . There doesn ’ t really seem to be all that much progression from beginning to end in terms of rise in difficulty . This of course really depends on the player , but there were times when I found myself stuck in early stages and breezing through much later ones .
36 GAMBIT | SEPT / OCT | 2017