Q.U.B.E. 2 Review for PlayStation 4

There are so many merits to this game that it’s hard to know where best to begin. Q.U.B.E. 2, by Toxic Games, is a puzzle game unlike any other. If you’re looking for intense intellectual stimulation, wrapped up in an intricate narrative, welcome to your holy grail.

Q.U.B.E. 2 isn’t big on offering up information. We don’t know much about the world we play in or our character, Dr. Amelia Cross, and that ambiguity remains a pretty steadfast constant throughout. The vague nature of the narrative is intriguing enough to hold your curiosity all the way to the end, inserting eery and cryptic hints along the way in the form of gibberish spewing statues and unknown voices hacking into your intercom system.

All the playable elements in Q.U.B.E. 2 are misleadingly simple. The foreboding, futuristic laboratory setting sets the tone for spartan, but complex gameplay. There are really only three controllable elements; red, blue, and green blocks. Each type of block has a specific purpose; blue blocks are used to bounce green blocks and red blocks can be lengthened to be used as a shelf or a barrier. Several other implements are introduced further on into the narrative, such as metal balls, magnets, and blow torches, but don’t expect to receive any tutorials on how to manipulate these tools—figuring out what does what is learned solely by trial and error. This holds true to the game’s overarching theme. Many of the puzzles are extraordinarily challenging and you’ll only know what something new will do after you’ve figured out all that it does not do.

Strategy and timing are the keys to tackling these puzzles. Toxic Games does an outstanding job of escalating the challenge-factor as you progress, but doesn’t follow a linear path of difficulty. There are easier puzzles mixed in amongst the brain-strain sets. Yes, some puzzles with have you muttering expletives because they appear to be literally unsolvable, but I assure you, every sequence has a solution (and you can’t help but feel like an MIT graduate when you figure it out). The easier puzzles sprinkled throughout are quite the reprieve to regain focus and disperse the smoke coming out of your ears.

There is very little in this game that doesn’t deserve praise, but since it is my job to critique with a fine-toothed comb, let’s talk minor wrinkles. Overall, the controls are very forgiving and allot for very smooth gameplay, but there are some glitches that call for a restart. I found myself getting stuck underneath surfaces that weren’t designed to trap me and experienced incidences where an action is supposed to be successfully executable but isn’t, making me try over and over again until Lady Luck said it was time. Not too far into the game, you become acquainted with a new voice on your intercom referred to as Unknown. Unknown becomes a pivotal part of the narrative, but the mysterious distortion in his voice is taken to an extreme and makes him difficult to understand. This was the biggest disappointment for me because I ended up missing a great deal of the narrative trying to understand him.

Getting all the way to completion is a lengthy undertaking and is certainly not without maddening obstacles, but the ending is so satisfactory and pulls everything together in a twist that’s almost impossible to see coming. A must play.

Rating: 8.5/10

Check Out the New Q.U.B.E. 2 Launch Trailer:

Q.U.B.E. 2 is launching today for PC via Steam, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in Q1 2018.