Grade: A-
Puzzle Platformer where you can reshape the world
I’ve had a run of mediocre games recently in my reviews, and Semblance was a lovely breath of fresh air. Semblance is an innovative 2D platformer where you solve the puzzles by reshaping the “platforms” themselves.
Right at the game’s outset, you realize you are being dropped into a wildly different world where the creatures are all shaped of playdough-like substances. There’s been some infection that hardens and disrupts the natural balance with a greenish rock disease. An unlikely hero, guardian of the playdough verse, “Squish,” emerges, and you’re off to save the world.
Gameplay Builds as you go.
At first, Semblance gives you two simple actions. You can dash, which allows you to reshape the walls and terrain around you. You can also reset the ground and change it back to how it was using the “reset” action. These two simple mechanics get you through the first of four worlds.
In the second world, which I found the most challenging, you must incorporate momentum physics as you reshape the platforms. This is challenging but also fun. I included my favorite puzzle below to give you a sense of the mind-bending mechanics.
As you enter the third world, you find, to your delight, that you can reshape yourself into a tall-skinny or a short-wide playdough person. The tall-skinny version of Squish can get extra vertical movement but has limited horizontal movement. Vice-versa, the short-wide version of Squish has extra horizontal movement but very limited vertical. A picture is worth a thousand words, so I included my third-level puzzles below to illustrate.
The home stretch of the game puts it all together.
(Includes spoilers)
After each of the first three worlds, the entrance to the final boss area opens up. The setup in the last area combines mechanics from all worlds into a final set of puzzles. The difficulty is just right to be challenging, but not impossible. I captured the entire last run for those interested.
Overall, Semblance is a lovely little exploration of platforming puzzle mechanics; each level builds on the last. Only a couple of puzzles were fiddly enough to be frustrating. I also encountered a couple of bugs that required me to reset “Squish” manually,” but this game is worth a pick-up if you are interested in the puzzle platformer genre.
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