PAX West Spotlight: Superliminal
Superliminal is a game about shattering your expectations, rebuilding your knowledge of how the world can work, and then shattering those expectations again. It is a game that feels everything like portal with a completely different main mechanic - the ability to change perspective.
In Superliminal, you play as a nameless and faceless FPV protagonist attempting to escape or master a testing facility where perspective is fluid. You can pick up objects from across the room, they'll just be smaller when you're holding them. If you grab an object where you're standing and drop it while staring down the hall, the object will fall at the end of the hall but at a massive size.
The puzzles are all centered around this main mechanic. You may pick up a small box and place it at the end of the room to use as a platform for getting to the next area. Or you may grab a giant object in your way and drop it as a tiny block on the floor in front of you. It's all really intuitive and fun to master.
The demo we got to play at PAX was relatively short with few difficult challenges, but the taste I got has me excited to play the full game. One thing I loved is how many mechanics aren't as much taught as discovered. Maybe this time when you grab the cube, it falls into pieces - or is connected to the floor - or is actually hollow. And as you discover these new mechanics, your mind immediately shifts to how to solve the puzzles of the current room using them.
Tone-wise, the game was extremely lighthearted about the environment. It had a very Stanley Parable-esque comedic style with most of the comedy coming from audio logs that could be found throughout the level. If you like puzzles and you like weird physics, this is definitely a game worth checking out.
Check out the trailer below:
