If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Portal should consider itself properly wood. Quantum Conundrum draws from the illustrious puzzler in many decadent ways, but also manages to stand on its own as a love letter to Kim Swift’s uproariously popular creation. Of course, that makes plenty of sense, as this new first-person puzzler is a project from the Portal lead herself. While it could have easily stood as a supplement to Swift’s outstanding work on Portal, it offers a satisfying and mind-bending journey on its own merit.
You’re Professor Fitz Quadwrangle’s nephew, and your wacky uncle has somehow managed to find himself trapped in the mythical dimension where all of our lost belongings end up. Your car keys? That dimension. The awesome Batman socks you bought and planned on wearing every day? Professor Quadwrangle’s hanging out there with them. But it’s your job to rescue him — with his disembodied voice, of course. And while you don’t have a name or any character development to speak of, you’re instrumental in ensuring the good Professor’s escape.
Unfortunately, he hasn’t exactly made this easy on himself — or anyone, for that matter. See, he spends most of his time tooling around with interdimensional experiments. So “scattered” if you will amongst Quadwrangle Manor are several different incomplete tests and their results, which ultimately ends up in the creation of four alternate dimensions being strewn about the house. In order to rescue your uncle, you’ll need to put your wits to the test (as well as those handy dandy problem solving skills).
Across four very different dimensions, all of which feature alternate rules of physics and other constraints, you’ll pack along Quadwrangle’s invention, the IS device (interdimensional shift device — a glove instead of a Portal gun) and Quadwrangle’s orders to guide you through all four of the varying areas. You’ll need to be quite nimble about switching between each dimension: where one might feature heavier objects, or “fluffy” items that bounce higher than others in the heavier dimension, and while it’s usually quite obvious what needs to be done to complete each puzzle, it’s a toss-up sometimes as to how you need to accomplish it. Where exactly do you need to toss this crate? At which time, precisely, do you need to make your descent into the laser-infested walkway?
It sounds like the stuff of any great platformer, and you’d be right in thinking it quite often relies on those kinds of sensibilities to accomplish much. It never claims to be anything more than a collection of sandbox-styled puzzles loosely connected via Quadwrangle’s dimension-sized dilemma, and the fact that this game never takes itself too seriously provides fuel for players to keep moving forward, even when puzzle solutions aren’t so readily apparent.
Quantum Conundrum infuses a sense of childlike wonder into each of its interdimensional areas, and a fantastic performance by John de Lancie (whom you might recognize from Star Trek) as Professor Quadwrangle spice it up in ways that elevate this puzzler beyond that of mere “indie” status and into an area that doesn’t quite touch Portal’s status as a cult icon, but into the stratosphere of praise you likely thought it’d end up. It’s just a shame it ends so abruptly. Might we be seeing another of these types of games from Swift in the future? We hope so — especially if the same kind of quirky humor is present in any future endeavors. We all know that’s what we came for, anyway.