QUBE 2 Review - New mechanics keep you out of the rut

If you had said to your school friends fifteen years ago that you were going to have a nice weekend of puzzling, then the chances were great that you suspected that a few pieces of the puzzle were missing in your upper room. 6 vertical: four letters, another word for 'sulletje'. More than a decade ago, games such as Portal changed the concept of puzzling and many developers have since enjoyed touring on the puzzle game bandwagon. Similarly Toxic Games, which in 2011 with the puzzler QUBE - which stands for Quick Understanding or Block Extrusion - gamers once again played old-fashioned with blocks. After a bit more than six years, it's time to give a sequel to this game in the form of QUBE 2. It's time again to put on the cube manipulating gloves and experience QUBE.

The story is 'fair but square'

Put first, in terms of story QUBE 2 is initially not special, especially for the people who played the first part. This time it is a British archaeologist named Amelia Cross who uses the familiar cube manipulating gloves to escape from an alien planet with the aid of which his enigmatic monoliths consist largely of blocks. How she got there is a mystery to her, but with the help of commander Emma Sutcliff she should get out of it. Everyone with a bit of common sense feels the plottwist is already coming from miles, but well, there are only so many scenarios you can touch in this genre, of which Portal, The Turing Test and The Talos Principle have already claimed a few.

Yet the story is not necessarily so weak and flat that it really does not interest you much, which is largely due to periodically appearing Atlas-esque images that trigger a quizzical cutscene. These play in on the aforementioned possibility of a plottwist and largely take the grind of the Amelia / Emma dialogue out, while in passing they give the story a little more body. It would be a shame to tell you too much about it - because of spoilers - but I, as a big fan of Assassin's Creeds 'Precursor Sequences', could do well. Anyway, not everyone buys a puzzle game to let themselves be bamboozled through the story. If the puzzling itself is fun.

The game is hardly put on the block

In the field of mechanics, too little has been done about the known formula. In fact, these are a lot simpler in relation to the original QUBE. Interaction with the environment is limited to 'only' three color codes, each of which again embodies its own function. Blue creates a kind of 'jump path', red provides you with a telescopic column and greens you can conjure up a single cube a la minute. A salient detail for the PlayStation users: the light bar changes constantly in the selected color, which I personally find very ingenious. You can only use one of each color for every part of the game at the same time per room. As soon as you select the color for a second time, the first one expires.

The majority of the puzzles - of which there are eighty - are never really a horrible obstacle, with a few exceptions. The set-up per puzzle invites you to think and look around, but when you have done that, the solution is quite straightforward, especially in the beginning. QUBE 2 therefore does not need a tutorial. The basics of every puzzle are in fact quite intuitive. It is especially in the second half of this suit'm seven-hour game that provides additional mechanics for the biggest brain teasers. Magnetic fields of which you can regulate the polarity, oil syringes to soak and slide your cube, burners to put the oil-soaked objects on fire, round bullets that you can roll out of the wall and properly oversized fans; in the end you have to consider using them one by one to make progress and figure out what the fuck is exactly going on. In my case, I have never done more than five to ten minutes on a puzzle, except for the very last puzzle. There I have really been scratching myself a few times.

Visually, QUBE 2 is absolutely (b) attractive

QUBE 2 is also definitely a male in graphic design. In this case, Toxic games has chosen to let the game run on the Unreal Engine, which has recently provided for more eye-catching games. Considering the majority of the levels consist of quite clinically white, block-like environments, the puzzle game usually does not ask for much of your system during the first hours. It is in a later stage of QUBE 2 that the sleek design is more exchanged for a varied level design and more colors than just white, green, blue and red. Quite frankly, that turnaround is also necessary in order not to make all puzzles look alike. After a few hours of sterile chambers, your eyes are sometimes ready for some refreshing, something Toxic Games seems to understand too well.

Although the Unreal Engine is never really driven to the max, QUBE 2 suffers consistently from frame drops, even in places where you do not expect the total. The game has surprisingly few loading screens - actually only when you use a lift or go to the next chapter - so I suspect it has to do with loading a level. Fortunately, the frame drop never has an adverse effect on the completion of the puzzle. Nevertheless, it is unfortunate, a blot on the otherwise flawless blazon of QUBE 2. Perhaps the drops on a PlayStation 4 Pro are less noticeable, but I believe that the type of console is not a decisive factor.

QUBE 2 is a puzzler that I stand square behind

All in all, I can conclude that QUBE 2 is a very interesting game for lovers of the puzzle genre. None of the levels have the depth of a game like The Talos Principle or the narrative entertainment value of Portal, but for two decades you'll definitely get a game with QUBE 2 that will keep you six or seven of the street, depending on your puzzle skills. Unfortunately, all this has no replay value considering a Time Trial Mode or any kind of collectibles are completely absent. The only reason to go through this entire process is to unlock both endings - and the accompanying trophy / achievement. I, as a non-completionist, did not have such a need. QUBE 2 is fun for a playthrough, but when you have solved all the puzzles you will not be honored to go through those same puzzles again to see an alternative ending. Loading your last save - which in most cases is ideal to play only the end - is annoyingly not an option in QUBE 2, since the game only uses autosaves, which is therefore overwritten after the game is played out.

One thing is certain; you do not have to be ashamed of your buddies when you decide this weekend to hang out the puzzler in QUBE 2. It probably will not be the most advanced puzzle game in your list, but for twenty euros you can say that you are absolutely right for you get money. The chance is in any case great that it has been a long time ago that you had so much fun while you were playing with blocks.

Conclusion

Toxic Games will also race in the puzzlegame bandwagon in 2018, which started to sail a decade ago. Technically speaking, QUBE 2 does not have a lot of surprises and the mechanics are not particularly affected either. Still, the British developer has done enough to make QUBE 2 no repeat exercise, which is especially evident after a few hours of playing. In terms of graphics, the QUBE franchise also went with the times, which from time to time results in quite impressive views. It is only too bad that the frame drops sometimes tease the game. I also recommend Toxic Games to enter post launch a Time Trial Mode to give QUBE 2 replay value. An alternative ending does not give enough reason to go through the same puzzles for another seven hours.

Pros

➕ QUBE 2 is challenging, but never painfully difficult
➕ Graphically it's all a mustache
➕ The additions of new mechanics keep you out of the rut
➕ Voice acting is well arranged
➕ The price of 20 euro is entirely justified

Cons

➖ Storyline is not entirely surprising and plottwist quite predictable
➖ Frame drop here and there is quite a pity
➖ Total no replay value