This game is quite the mind bender. In fact, it bends your mind so much you may swear you can hear it screaming for you to stop. Prelogate is pretty much what it says on the main page; A game that uses lasers and mirrors to solve complex problems. The game itself is pretty straight-forward in that you just have to solve the puzzles. The music selection is slow and ambient, which is nice, but felt grating at some points. There's a...sorta plot, but at the same time its not entirely a plot. While the game itself is a challenge, it gets to a point where the challenge is excessive and one relies more on solution codes than spending 3 hours on one stage. While I would recommend it, it's not something I'd recommend to just anyone.

The gameplay is, as said before, using lasers and mirrors. Cool, right? Who doesn't like using lasers for weird stuff? Unfortunately, the fun part wears off pretty quickly. The game starts with simple mirrors and lasers, relying on reflection and splitting to get to an endpoint. This lasts for a few levels before the game introduces logic gates; IF, OR, AND, XOR. Naturally, anyone with a smidge of computer science learning, or fumbling around in programming, knows what these are. So it's rather an unhappy moment when you realize these logic gates don't really...feel like they belong. Sure you know how they work because of the small text window, but that's all you get. You have to figure out how they work entirely in the levels they give it to you, because it does not get esaier after this point. It is here you realize the game is about to turn from difficulty curve into a full blown Kleiner's bottle of difficulty; no matter how hard you climb, you never really escape it. Solutions become downright maddening just to clear one step out of eight. Again, it is here you start to rely more on solution codes than actually working it out.

It's there, sure. It's pretty basic, nice space-like ambience to make you feel relaxed. Which doesn't help because this game needs you to fire all cylinders in your brain. Strange how that works.

The game has some...interesting mechanics outside of the actual game. However, these interesting mechanics are simply superficial; They're there to just sit there and look nice. You can interact with the pre-level UI in some ways, but it doesn't really do much. Can't explore who you are, why you're there, what kinda people are working with you. It's just for kicks. Part of me thinks it was going to be a part of something larger, but was scrapped for reasons unknown. While the over-arching plot is you making AI systems with lasers, I felt like there could've been a little more.

I personally just could not enjoy the game after getting halfway through it. The logic gates really made the puzzles far more mind-bending than they deserved to be and the unfortunate reality to feel like I was too stupid to figure it out for myself, let alone for the rest of the game, really gave me a terrible taste in my mouth. The game does what it sets out to do, and does it well. That said, don't be surprised if you fall short of what the puzzles ask for and end up flailing hopelessly because you just don't entirely understand it. Thankfully, the pricetag is quite an enticing factor, so even if you don't really like it, 3$ for 64 levels of puzzles is a pretty rad deal.

I'm reluctantly recommending it on the off-chance people are masochistic and love a good challenge. Don't say I didn't warn you!

[h1]Abstract[/h1] This game is quite the mind bender. In fact, it bends your mind so much you may swear you can hear it screaming for you to stop. Prelogate is pretty much what it says on the main page; A game that uses lasers and mirrors to solve complex problems. The game itself is pretty straight-forward in that you just have to solve the puzzles. The music selection is slow and ambient, which is nice, but felt grating at some points. There's a...sorta plot, but at the same time its not entirely a plot. While the game itself is a challenge, it gets to a point where the challenge is excessive and one relies more on solution codes than spending 3 hours on one stage. While I [i]would[/i] recommend it, it's not something I'd recommend to just anyone. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] The gameplay is, as said before, using lasers and mirrors. Cool, right? Who doesn't like using lasers for weird stuff? Unfortunately, the fun part wears off pretty quickly. The game starts with simple mirrors and lasers, relying on reflection and splitting to get to an endpoint. This lasts for a few levels before the game introduces logic gates; IF, OR, AND, XOR. Naturally, anyone with a smidge of computer science learning, or fumbling around in programming, knows what these are. So it's rather an unhappy moment when you realize these logic gates don't really...feel like they belong. Sure you know how they work because of the small text window, but that's all you get. You have to figure out how they work entirely in the levels they give it to you, because it does not get esaier after this point. It is here you realize the game is about to turn from difficulty curve into a full blown Kleiner's bottle of difficulty; no matter how hard you climb, you never really escape it. Solutions become downright maddening just to clear one step out of eight. Again, it is here you start to rely more on solution codes than actually working it out. [h1]Music[/h1] It's there, sure. It's pretty basic, nice space-like ambience to make you feel relaxed. Which doesn't help because this game needs you to fire all cylinders in your brain. Strange how that works. [h1]Plot[/h1] The game has some...interesting mechanics outside of the actual game. However, these interesting mechanics are simply superficial; They're there to just sit there and look nice. You can interact with the pre-level UI in some ways, but it doesn't really do much. Can't explore who you are, why you're there, what kinda people are working with you. It's just for kicks. Part of me thinks it was going to be a part of something larger, but was scrapped for reasons unknown. While the over-arching plot is you making AI systems with lasers, I felt like there could've been a little more. [h1]Overall[/h1] I personally just could not enjoy the game after getting halfway through it. The logic gates really made the puzzles far more mind-bending than they deserved to be and the unfortunate reality to feel like I was too stupid to figure it out for myself, let alone for the rest of the game, really gave me a terrible taste in my mouth. The game does what it sets out to do, and does it well. That said, don't be surprised if you fall short of what the puzzles ask for and end up flailing hopelessly because you just don't entirely understand it. Thankfully, the pricetag is quite an enticing factor, so even if you don't really like it, 3$ for 64 levels of puzzles is a pretty rad deal. I'm reluctantly recommending it on the off-chance people are masochistic and love a good challenge. Don't say I didn't warn you!