Unlike a game like Q.U.B.E. that used Portal as inspiration
to go on to do its own thing, Magnetic: Cage Closed just unapologetically
steals from Portal wholesale. Somehow
they forgot to steal the most important bit, however, and Magnetic’s
first-person-puzzles are just bland, boring, and uninspired. There is no reason whatsoever to play
Magnetic: Cage Closed, but read our review anyway.Game Details
- Publisher: Gambitious Digital Entertainment
- Developer: Guru Games
- ESRB Rating: “T” for Teen
- Genre: First-Person-Puzzle
- Pros: Decent visuals
- Cons: Mostly boring puzzles; totally unoriginal; clunky controls
- MSRP: $15
Magnetic: Cage Closed features your female silent
protagonist being forced to run through a series of puzzle rooms to test out
mysterious new device. Sound
familiar? Get used to it, because
Magnetic: Cage Closed is pretty much just Portal. It even has the exact same plot twist in the second half. The difference here is that Magnetic doesn’t
have the sense of humor or charm or wit that made Portal such a
phenomenon. It is all just grimdark and
serious and boring.
The gameplay here revolves around a magnet gun that can be
used to push and pull blocks as well as propel yourself around if you need
to. The puzzles are largely about using
the magnet gun to move boxes around to push buttons or to pull blocks out to
create paths for you to jump around on to reach the exit. The rooms are full of spikes and poison gas
and fire, so you have to also use the magnet gun to help your character jump
around and over these hazards. You can
briefly hover or use the repulse ability for super jumps.
The problem comes in the fact these navigational puzzles
require split second precision that the controls just can’t keep up with. The actual puzzles are rarely very
difficult, but when you have to precisely more around while running and jumping
and using the magnet gun to push and pull all in rapid succession things start
to fall apart. It just flat out doesn’t
control well, and when the game forces you to wait around and listen to the
same dialogue over and over again when you fail just increases your frustration
level even more. If your game isn’t
very fun to begin with, annoying players with bad controls and forced cutscenes
isn’t doing you any favors.
Magnetic: Cage Closed has a bad habit of making you just sit
around and wait far too often. You
spend a lot of time riding in shipping containers as the game transports you
around the facility. You also spend way
too long slowly crawling through maintenance shafts from one puzzle to
another. And, as mentioned, the game
likes to monologue at you with clichéd, poorly written “bad guy” dialogue that
you have to sit around and listen to.
The one interesting thing Magnetic does is that it asks you
questions at the end of each act that have consequences for other people /
prisoners at the facility. These only
have a marginal impact on your experience, but the final choice does actually
lead to totally different sets of levels depending on what you choose, which is
kind of cool. I wish the rest of the
game actually tried to be this interesting.
The presentation in Magnetic: Cage Closed actually isn’t too
bad. The game takes place in some sort
of prison facility so it is sort of dark and grimy instead of the clean test
chambers of Portal or Q.U.B.E., so it does have that to sort of make it
distinct, at least. There are lots of
special effects for fire and other hazards and the lighting actually looks
pretty decent. I have to admit I do
like the visual style here.
Disclosure: A review code was provided by the publisher.
