Superliminal Reviews
As a metaphor for transforming inane frustration into gratifying solutions, Superliminal was a profound experience.
Still, Superliminal's satisfying every time a puzzle clicks. It sounds obvious, but that's the most redeeming trait a puzzle game can have. Sometimes it'll take you by surprise, sometimes you'll train your eye to see it coming. But analyzing a situation, exploring possibilities, and approaching it from unique angles never fails to be rewarding. Is that enough to offset the realization that you're starting from obtuse and working backward toward logical? It all depends on your perspective.
Superliminal has a unique concept for a puzzle game and nice and trippy visuals to accompany it, but alas, that's the majority of what it has going for it.
This is a puzzling masterclass with a heart as well as a brain.
Superliminal is fun. It may not be challenging, and it might not have a deeper message behind it, but it’s a hell of a ride – and on many levels it’s a technical masterpiece.
An excellent puzzle game with a fun sense of humour, and an important and surprising message behind it.
Portal meets The Stanley Parable in a game that, although may fall short in some aspects, offers one of the most imaginative and surprising experiences of 2019. A true hidden gem for the puzzle lovers as well as a video game design masterclass.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
Perhaps there’s an angle from which Superliminal is a satisfying, Portal-style thriller, but unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find that angle. And as the game was so fond of reminding me, perception is reality.
Despite a few limitations, Superliminal succeeds where it counts.
Superliminal seems like a great game at first. The perspective mechanics on display make a fantastic first impression, but the game's design falters as it goes on. The weakness of the puzzles and unevenness of the overall game drag it down in the end.
Objects can be picked up and dropped at vast distances while retaining the size that they are in your hand, allowing you to shrink and grow anything you can pick up. Many mechanics only show up for short sequences before being replaced by something even stranger, too, allowing Superliminal to surprise you constantly all the way to its ending.
Superliminal is a game that values quality over quantity and is all the stronger for it. With simple, inventive mechanics and an involving play-time between 2-4 hours, Pillow Games have produced a wonderful little puzzle game here.
Superliminal is a hard game to talk about without being able to go deeper into the details of why the experience turns out to be so brilliantly designed, but trust me that this is a curious and clever game, that also carries an unexpected dose of positive messages by the end.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It’s an accomplishment, and it’s certainly better and more original than the vast bulk of games in the physics-gimmick subgenre, but I respect it a lot more than I like it.
Superliminal is like that trip that you know is going to be short lived but you are still totally justified in doing it because you know it will be the best trip of your life. With a strange mix between Portal and The Stanley Parable, Superliminal proposes an introspective journey where visual beauty is taken to its maximum expression. One of those experiences you have to try at least once in your life.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
An original gameplay mechanic is hard to come by, and these shapeshifting puzzles feel like nothing else. The parts of the game that are derivative aren’t bad, just second best. The parts of the game that are original are extraordinary.
Walk up close and you'll find that it's now seven feet tall.
The more profound life lesson that Superliminal attempts to convey throughout becomes quite apparent in the final monologue from Doctor Glenn Pierce in the last few minutes of the game. Not only does it connect everything that you have done in the game with a higher purpose and meaning, but it has connected with my own life. Perspective is a powerful sentiment and one that many take for granted. Dropping an enlarged exit sign over two pressure plates to open a door is one thing, but understanding how you can become a better person, by looking at all the possible angles and outcomes, is a life lesson I was not expecting from a video game. Some may walk away from this game, thinking it was just a game, but I would say that they missed the theme entirely. Bravo, Pillow Castle Games.
Puzzles range from clever to obtuse, and exploring these impossible spaces is incredibly compelling
Despite Superliminal‘s sometimes less than comfortable gameplay mechanics, it provides an extremely unique take on the genre. Coupling that with a minimalistic but impactful narrative on how we can chose to live our own lives make it a memorable experience, even if not always that fun as a game.