Neon Cipher is a brisk, brain-teasing puzzle platformer that blends first-person immersion with third-person platforming.
Your journey begins after being dropped right into a sequence of fraught our on-line world mazes stuffed with robotic sentries and geometric obstacles to combat, evade, and escape. You management an avatar within the recreation house and manipulate the setting and its enemies utilizing hands-on controls from a first-person perspective.
It’s a trendy and ultra-minimalist mashup of the VR basic Moss, and historical PlayStation relics like Clever Qube and Echochrome.
What’s it?: A geometrical puzzle-platformer performed by way of first and third-person controls.
Platforms: PC VR, Meta Quest (Reviewed on Quest 3S)
Launch Date: Out now
Developer: eXomorph Video games
Value: $19.99
The plot of Neon Cipher is gentle, and what’s right here isn’t groundbreaking, but it surely units the tone and establishes the sport world. You play as a hacker who’s been recruited by the mysterious Captain S. Ren, a member of a digital revolt. The purpose is to hack into XE_Corp’s digital archive to retrieve… one thing. I can not actually recall, as a result of the plot is so sparse that it’s merely not very memorable. On the flipside, it isn’t distracting, both.
Extra necessary are the sport’s mechanics, that are easy and efficient. Throughout fifty transient puzzle levels, the participant should navigate their in-game avatar via the various three-dimensional geometric mazes to acquire a set variety of keys scattered all through the setting. The avatar is managed by way of the sport controller’s analog sticks and buttons in a standard third-person trend.
The acquisition of the keys shouldn’t be an easy proposition. Usually, they’re positioned in awkward areas which should be navigated to with pinpoint correct platforming and by manipulating platforms and objects within the setting. You do that with the sport controller by bodily reaching out, grabbing maintain of the platform or object, and dragging it the place we wish it to go.
Gameplay captured by UploadVR on Quest 3S
The manipulable objects are rendered within the monochrome recreation house in shades of blue and crimson. We are able to pull or push blue platforms out of niches in a wall, as an example, to create a makeshift stairway or carry our avatar right here and there. Reaching out and grabbing maintain of those platforms might be accomplished with both hand, and the method feels intuitive and easy.
Automated transferring crimson platforms and different objects might be activated by hand switches or by putting weighted blocks positioned on stress switches.
Whereas each mechanics work properly sufficient, they will sometimes really feel too apparent. For instance, many of the blue movable platforms merely run on a predetermined observe. We are able to slide a block left or proper or up or down, however not wherever we like. This limitation retains the participant from simply grabbing a block, putting our avatar onto it, and zipping them across the recreation world freely. Nonetheless, the truth that every block has a form of predestined path signifies that the answer to each puzzle is just sliding some blocks this manner after which that. On this manner, the platforming puzzles do not at all times really feel like puzzles, extra like a sequence of duties to finish.
The sport’s puzzles naturally change into extra sophisticated as the sport progresses, with later levels being completely filled with crimson and blue interactable puzzle objects and loads of enemies to stun, dodge, and assault. However Neon Cipher may very well be a bit tougher, and I would not complain.
Neon Cipher’s controls are tight, and the platforming is satisfying and constant. We don’t undergo inscrutable physics or slog via irritating views. There’s no conventional digicam to regulate, we merely view the world in first particular person and transfer ourselves bodily to achieve a greater view. There are additionally no odd distances to evaluate, or extraneous complicated components, and there isn’t any fall injury.
As soon as we’ve labored our avatar via the maze and picked up all the required keys, the stage door opens, permitting our avatar to flee the stage and transfer on to the following. However that is simpler mentioned than accomplished; the keys are guarded by enemies. These enemy bots try and destroy the participant character by way of melee or ranged assaults, which should be averted or countered.
We’ve got a couple of strategies of counterattack out there to us. The primary is an easy melee assault. By urgent the A button, our little electrical avatar can ship a weak punch. Punch an enemy a couple of instances, and it’ll dissolve completely. We are able to additionally bodily attain out with the VR controller and seize the enemy bots with a press of the set off. This briefly stun-locks the enemy behind a vector power area, permitting our avatar within the recreation world to both circumvent or assault the enemy freely. Lastly, it’s doable to make use of the setting’s movable objects to squish the enemy bots.
Gameplay captured by UploadVR on Quest 3S
Whereas these actions might be moderately described as “fight,” you shouldn’t anticipate complexity or sophistication. Our bot has one transfer that is gradual and ineffective. Although the power to achieve out and stun our enemies with the controllers earlier than delivering a few melee assaults sounds dynamic and fascinating, the truth is that fight is way from participating.
As a rule, clearing a stage devolves merely into wiggling round a bit, avoiding the enemy’s ranged assaults, and scampering away with a key. It is simply not very thrilling, and this turns into much more apparent after we understand that defeating all of the bots on a stage shouldn’t be a requirement for development. If we will evade the enemies and seize all of the keys, the door opens, and we nonetheless win.
However I am nitpicking, only a bit. What’s right here is okay, I solely want the puzzles had been a bit more durable on the mind, and the fight a bit extra demanding of the reflexes.
Taking part in Neon Cipher nearly turns into meditative at instances. Regardless of the potential stress of failure and the frivolously taxing psychological exertion, the sport’s ethereal setting and moody ambient soundtrack sneakily lulls you right into a state of calm. After 20 or 40 minutes of enjoying, I really feel extra centered, one way or the other.
Gameplay captured by UploadVR on Quest 3S
Neon Cipher makes use of the controller’s analog stick for transferring the avatar within the recreation house, and the headset for first-person digicam work. There isn’t any actual motion requirement, and the sport might be performed sitting or standing.
Past the principle marketing campaign of fifty puzzles, Neon Cipher additionally features a pretty complete stage creator. Customized mazes are constructed utilizing pre-made blocks and objects, which might be positioned wherever within the 3D house. Whereas there may be at present no technique to add customized maps, the developer hopes to implement this in future updates, or that maps might be shared manually by way of the studio’s Discord server.
Neon Cipher Overview – Closing Verdict
Neon Cipher started life as a faculty undertaking developed throughout a three-month interval. Upon commencement, eXomorph Video games’ studio head, Jon Bogert, expanded the sport to its present type for this launch, and it is an pleasant debut from a brand new developer. It is probably not as lush or expansive as comparable third-person/first-person puzzle platformers resembling Moss, but it surely’s a enjoyable albeit simplified instance of the style’s extra fascinating concepts.
UploadVR makes use of a 5-Star score system for our recreation evaluations – you’ll be able to learn a breakdown of every star score in our evaluate tips.
