Gadgetory

hi this is joey davidson senior gaming editor technobuffalo calm and i'm here with a look at anti chamber before we get started let me just put this out there anti chamber is going to be one of the strangest games we ever feature on we play it's unlike anything we've ever shown off in this series before we'll probably never used something like it again so if you don't really enjoy the offbeat side of the gaming world i recommend you skip this one anti chamber is wonderful but it's definitely not for everyone we'll be back to more mainstream games in the coming weeks but I just really wanted to highlight this one for just this episode antichamber was developed by Alexander Bruce it's been running the gaming convention and awards circuit for the last several years and it was originally known as hazard the journey of life Bruce created a game centered around non-euclidean space and the navigation of it for those of you who quite frankly hate geometry like me antichamber is basically about manipulating the game world as it's perceived by the player and then tasking them to move through it so if you pay attention to the gameplay behind my voice you'll see that i'm almost fumbling through each contrasting area trying to use the tools given to me to solve each rooms puzzle so here you see me running through this blue and red space and kind of realizing that it's going to make me repeat until i make a different decision so this takes place from the beginning of the game and just so you know i deleted a save file and start afresh i really wanted you guys just to see exactly what it's like a fire it up and get going it's really one of the strangest experiences I've ever had with a game I'm not even sure if I like it I just it's it's just so bizarre you'll see here pretty much run into a brick wall and turn around and things are different I have to hit the Escape key and hop back out to the menu and try and figure things out again that's what this game is all about pay attention a little bit how things are really going in the video and you'll kind of get a sense of what's going on an antechamber just like that I have a gun now I've got a gun it starts to take on a little bit of a almost like a portal feeling I really don't want to compare it to portal but I kind of have to I guess so that you guys understand it see in Portal if you think about the way that the puzzle solving was presented in Portal basically valve strongly long and kind of beat you over the head with the way to solve puzzles it was like here's how you solve a really basic principle open a portal here and open another portal here and you'll walk through it if you remember the first portal it started out where you can only fire like the blue side you didn't have two portals you could only open one and one was already open for you when you started the puzzle then after you learned how that work that gave you the second portal and then it taught you more advanced mechanics with that it introduced the idea of momentum and you know a constant sense of momentum when you jump through portals in order to accelerate to leap to greater heights if you've played the game you know exactly what I'm talking about with antechamber it just kind of it doesn't really beat you over the head with the rules of the game it just says okay here's here are the puzzles here are some of the mechanics that they require in order to solve them good luck so antechamber is not so much a game about relearning the rules of physics and geometry as it is about understanding the rules of a new world and making the writer I guess best decisions in it it's about learning how to move forward instead of being a game about geometry it's like almost a game of psychology should I turn around here should i go back should i look at the space again am i doing this right the signs of floating text you approach during at the game echo the fact there's an ultimate way to go about exploring each space but the game is also really quick to remind you that there's no such thing as the wrong way so you might think you're kind of going down the wrong path but then there's a sign that says there's no such thing as a wrong path or this path isn't necessarily wrong as it is just different I don't know getting lost in edgy chamber feels almost like a good thing it's not like losing its like the developer wanted you to be there as you start to spin in circles around the same space over and over and I was stuck on this door maze for a while and honestly I got stuck here and after I deleted the same file id never returned look at me i'm a goofball I'm stuck but I got stuck here and I went a different path and never met this puzzle again and now I'm playing it with you guys and I'm about to solve it for the first time it's just that your brain starts to work differently as you approach antechamber over time Alexander proves almost wanted you to feel lost you get the sense that he's kind of messing with you the entire time and that really works I don't know like I said at the beginning this cliff antechamber isn't for everyone it's not for people who are entertained by the more obvious stuff in games and not that there's anything wrong with that I love big mainstream games too but there's no winning here there's no overt plot there's no killing there's not really a score per core board it's just I don't know it's about unraveling the rules of this really strange world learning the psychology of it and and it's something I really recommend that anyone if you've got a gaming PC this is windows only if you've got a gaming PC and it's on Steam right now and you've got a few bucks to toss at this go for it it's bizarre but you're gonna get the sense of really unique gameplay with this it's unlike anything I've ever played it and for that I kind of kind of love it for that you know alright this has been another episode of we play again my name is joey davidson i'm the senior editor the gaming channel at TechnoBuffalo calm if you dig this show but you're not really too fun stuff like antechamber just know that we'll be back next week with something a little bit more mainstream i'm pretty sure that we're going to have Sly Cooper the new game themes of time that should be coming up pretty soon we're also going to be looking at all sorts of other stuff down the line antichamber is currently selling for 15 bucks on steam that's a sale price though it's twenty-five percent off so pencils down it's going to be 20 bucks after the promotion ends I think it's maybe a month-long promotion it might even be longer it's just the introductory will cost it's really weird it's bizarre falling on this trippy tunnel right now joy it's definitely unlike any other game that I played a long time so if you're at all interested i do recommend it check it out thank you folks for watching we'll be back next time you