My Frustration with Anti-Chamber

Wow, for a minute there, I actually thought I could overcome the challenges and mysteries of Antichamber without relying on a guide. Turns out I was wrong. What started out as a joyful and mind-bending exploration of Alexander Bruce's astounding first-person puzzle-platformer turned into exasperation. Whether the fault is my utter lack of patience or the game's shifting puzzle mechanics is still undecided.

Before treading over my own problems with Antichamber, I should say I think the game is a stunning accomplishment and well worth your time. You can find it cheap on Steam or, if you prefer, it will likely appear in one Indie bundle or another at some point in the near future. Without a doubt, the game consistently surprised me and evoked more than a few bouts of excited laughter. Check out the trailer below for a minor taste of the game. Really, stop there and play it. This is a game best experienced with zero expectations.

While playing the game, I made a comment on twitter that captures nicely my immediate assessment of the game: Playing Antichamber is like playing the role of Sarah in 1986 classic fantasy film Labyrinth. Without revealing too much of my fanatical obsession and appreciation with Labyrinth (seriously, it's an amazing movie!), the film portrays Sarah's coming-of-age by manifesting feelings of "unfairness" and "hidden truths" physically within the ever-changing form of the titular maze. Walls appear in the maze where there were none before, optical illusions obscure pathways and traps, and the ruler of the land cheats when he pleases. Yet when she comes to accept all this, the maze becomes navigable.

Antichamber recreates the same arc almost perfectly. Early on, puzzles exist not necessarily to impede, but to impart some important lesson that will remain true - until it doesn't. Placards on the wall tell you things like "Sometimes going backwards can open doors" or "When you absorb your surroundings, you may notice things that you didn't see before." Experimentation can lead to stunning shifts in perception and reality and accidentally stumbling into new territory is a frequent occurrence. For the first three-quarters of the game, Antichamber is magical.

Then the game slows down precipitously as progress demands precision, and not just in thought. At some point, you gain access to various "guns" that absorb and dispense colored cubes. Every new gun acquisition opens up whole new areas to explore, but too often progressing demands minute control over the game objects and the world itself. Moving those little cubes, while timed, through a tiny maze, with a small pointer and a poor view can be absolutely mind-numbing - especially when one slip-up can force you to redo your hard work.

While you can always return to the starting room easily if, say, you fall through a hidden trap, in later portions of the game, where you spawn and how you navigate the rooms matters greatly. Messing up can mean backtracking again, having to redo these same precise movement to overcome frustrating puzzles you have already solved. The "world map" itself fails to convey the spatial relationships very well, an immensely difficult for both this game and Fez, another mind-bending puzzle that suffered from these same problems. When I know for certain I have the answer, but the difficulty lies in executing the actions, Antichamber  loses its magical ambiance and, sadly, brings back home to the mundane world, where David Bowie is not a goblin king and video game walkthroughs are a few clicks away.