Manifold Garden Reviews
Manifold Garden is a lovely game, but sometimes the "game" bit gets a little in the way.
Manifold Garden proves that a game doesn’t need a narrative to be enjoyable!
I’m happy to say that Manifold Garden is one of the few first person games I found myself enjoying immensely with little fiddling required. The puzzles are tricky and the lack of hints is definitely not for everyone, but the gorgeous world, tight controls and ease of access make for a fun experience worth playing to the end if you can.
I want to love this game, but I don't. It's an exquisite piece of design with a beautiful aesthetic that just needs a little more sense of direction in my honest opinion. Explorers and puzzlers will grow to love this game, but casual players looking for a coffee time headscratcher will probably grow tired of the scale and endless searching around for something to do quickly.
Overall, Manifold Garden is a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, it has mesmerizing visuals, good puzzles, and a calming atmosphere. But there are a few negatives, like headaches, and music which lulls you to sleep. Priced at $19.99, I would recommend picking it up only if it's interesting to you and on sale.
Completing puzzles and unlocking the various ways the game plays with its central mechanic all provide the catharsis of truly understanding each new environment and admiring the clever ways the developer wrapped everything together. From a pure gameplay perspective, it's a bit clunky, but you could say that about the work of many of the great artists and composers. Manifold Garden may not be much of a game, but it's surely an adventure that's worthy of some attention.
The star of the Manifold Garden show is far and away its presentation, and witnessing it in motion is worth the asking price alone. It's just a shame the puzzles themselves can't quite hit those same levels of spectacularity.
Manifold Garden achieves its goal of being a beautiful and unique experience, but at the cost of navigable environments and user experience.
Part of my love for indies is that the best of them dare to be different and then unapologetically deliver something new that challenges and defies your normal expectations...
Manifold Garden is a serotonin-inducing triumph of a puzzle game that will captivate anyone who loves abstract aesthetics. Every single frame of this game is a screenshot, and every puzzle one that challenges the brain to think of the world in a more incorporeal manner. If M.C. Escher is your favorite MC, Manifold Garden is an absolute must-play, and I cannot envision a better platform for this geometric garden than PC.
in the end, it can be said that Manifold Garden is a very worthy puzzle title. Although the game environments are designed to be very simple, they often find a special beauty during the gameplay, especially in Photo Mode, and the puzzles in them are also cleverly designed and challenge your mind. However, this particular identity of the game will not be to the liking of a number of players, especially those who have problems with the special and three-dimensional nature of the puzzles.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Manifold Garden challenges our intuition and gets its inspiration on impossible geometry and at the same time inviting us to think of impossible solutions.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
At its worst, Manifold Garden is great. At its best, it is transcendent. It is easily one of the best puzzle games of the past few years, and I can’t even imagine how much effort must have gone into designing the majority of its unique, multi-layered areas. While its flaws definitely detract from the overall experience, it is still a game which is absolutely worth experiencing. It will challenge you, leave you saying “wow” aloud, and consistently surprise you.
There are plenty of titles that share some common DNA with Manifold Garden but when it really gets into the zone, there's nothing else on the market like it. It brought out feelings in me I've never felt from a video game. I demanded others I know experience it in a way I haven't since the first time I tried VR. At its best, I forgot I was playing a video game, surrendering completely to the audio and visual experience while taking on challenging but not overwhelming puzzles.
William Chyr’s passion project is among my favorite first-person puzzlers for its ambitious scope, entrancing visuals, and brain-breaking conundrums.
Whether it's the influence of all the shapes and all the colours, or the enjoyable "clack" sound of cubes tapping along staircases, Manifold Garden is totally hypnotic. It's easy to get lost in a flow state while traversing between cubes to switches and other cubes, imbibing in the phenomenal, ever building soundtrack. It has none of the script or context of a title like Portal, but one would easily suspect that that would conflict with the undiluted audio-visual treat that this experience proffers. Manifold Garden builds a compelling, meditative world, and easily stands on its own merit as a highly recommended first person puzzle. It is short but sweet, as they say, and paced excellently. Jumping off into the abyss, and thinking about how to solve the next puzzle will never fail to reward - it makes one feel clever and always fits within the framework of rules which were previously set.
Manifold Garden's unique aesthetic and creative puzzles result in a memorable journey that is well worth the price of admission.
Manifold Garden is an incredibly stylish first-person puzzler, like walking through the architectural drawings of a pandimensional designer.
Despite the relatively short playtime and little replay value, Manifold Garden is worth exploring. Just be prepared for an existential trip into the world of William Chyr.
From world to world you go deeper and deeper, trembling with fear of a new complex task that seems impassable. Perhaps this is the most important thing you need to know about Manifold Garden, apart from the addictive desire to continue fighting puzzles and a slight dizziness.
Review in Russian | Read full review