#MANIFOLD GARDEN REVIEW CODE#

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary Nintendo Switch code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review.5h 30m PlayedPRO Visuals: looks great, just like Antichamber. Despite having to flail a bit before figuring out where to go next, it’s an artistically sound physics puzzle experience that will take you for an infinite joyride. Manifold Garden is fun, beautiful, and relaxing. It took roughly 7 years to develop Manifold Garden, pulling inspiration from MC Escher, Lebbeus Woods, Frank Lloyd Wright, Tadao Ando, and Tsutomu Nihe. You just play and complete puzzles at your leisure. The game is about 7-8 hours and there isn’t a time limit on any puzzle, nor do you die. It helps to stop and look at your surroundings or take a break and come back to it. You just have to have a keen eye and a sharp mind to figure out the next steps. The puzzles in Manifold Garden can be quite a bit challenging and the only issue I had was being lost at what to do or where to go next. There is also a photo mode should you want to stop and admire your surroundings. Movement and looking are the left and right thumbsticks, respectively. You can interact with objects using A, run using ZL, rotate items clockwise or counterclockwise with L and R, and change gravity with ZR. It’s very fluid and mathematically pleasing to the eye how perfectly the lines and shapes continue in their loop.Ĭontrolling yourself in Manifold Garden may seem daunting, but once you get used to flipping things around and which walls or ceilings are what colour, it becomes second nature. That is how the design of Manifold Garden feels. You know him better as the artist behind the Penrose Stairs or the impossible staircase. Earlier on I mentioned Escher, Maurits Cornelis Escher was a Dutch graphic artist who made mathematically inspired woodcuts, lithographs, and mezzotints. William Chyr has done a remarkable job combining both complexity and simplicity in the designs of the puzzles and of the world. Visually, Manifold Garden is stunning from an artistic standpoint. So it’s kind of like those A.S.M.R or autonomous sensory meridian response videos. Or maybe I’m just bad at puzzles? Anyway, you can hear the minute sound effects like the pressing of buttons, wind as you fall endlessly, or the sliding of boxes. It’s actually quite a calming experience, despite some puzzles being head-scratchingly difficult. You can hear some music, but it’s definitely not loud, which in this case is totally fine. Manifold Garden’s music is subtle, relying on the atmosphere and ambiance to speak for itself. I know, it’s a little confusing, but the feeling of having solved a particularly tough puzzle is quite rewarding, especially if the solution is right in front of you. So you have to think carefully about how you manipulate the room and objects because the orientation will be reversed. Because certain mechanics can only be interacted with when the room is in the correct orientation, some objects and buttons cannot be pressed or objects moved.įor example, if you move a red box in the red plane and flip to the blue plane, the red box will de-colourise and you cannot interact with it.

I admit, flipping the room and world around in order to utilize objects and tools took some getting used to, and I was a tad bit disoriented. Your reticle will change to the corresponding colour if you aim at a wall or structure. Several objects and elements in the world can only be interacted with if you’re oriented in the correct gravity, which is represented by 1 of 6 colours. Some puzzles can only be completed by falling off a ledge from various parts of a structure and onto another, either at a lower or higher point. So walls become floors and floors become ceilings. In Manifold Garden, you’re manipulating gravity to complete puzzles. However, pay very close attention to the structures around you because it took me a bit to realize that I was falling in a loop. I admit I felt my stomach drop when I accidentally fell off the side of a structure, thinking I was about to die when in fact you just fall endlessly. I love how the world looks and how you interact with it.

The visuals, though simple, are quite stunning. It re-imagines physics, gravity, and infinity all in a neat and clean package. Manifold Garden is a physics based Escher-esque puzzle game released in October 2019 for Windows, MacOS, iOS and now the Nintendo Switch. This puzzle game will quite literally make your head spin upside down. Don’t be fooled by how simplistic and calming it looks. Artistically sound lines, shapes, and structures that appear to repeat into infinity. Manifold Garden by William Chyr Studio is simply endless.

Manifold garden review