![]() ![]() Manifold Garden is a hands off experience without a structured narrative, way points or direct instruction. The aim of solving these puzzles is to clear away a corruption and bring the game world to life. #Manifold garden deluxe edition fullManifold Garden is a title full of eureka moments that don’t ever feel too frustrating to achieve. ![]() The puzzle structure in this game is constantly evolving, keeping it fresh and inventive. Pulling these threads together to satisfy the the bigger problems is very gratifying by design. Solve those puzzles and you’ll activate a laser which plays into the over arcing solution for the entire area. For example, early on you reach a platform which is connected to 3 other platforms, each of which has their own set of self contained puzzles. Many off the puzzles are linked together in Manifold Garden. Eventually, you’ll be shifting giant pieces of the world in order connect a circuit between a switch and a locked door. Those blocks I mentioned earlier? Placed in the path of a stream and they can change the water’s direction. Outside of the correct gravitational pull, they become frozen solid bridges that can be used to cross gaps. When flowing is headed along the correct gravitational plane, it can power water wheels. New puzzle elements are gradually added as the player progresses. Many of the puzzles in this game require manipulating this system, like stacking different coloured blocks and then changing the plane of gravity to essentially stick an active block to the ceiling. Drop a block in the centre of the floor and then walk up a wall and that block will sit there, stuck to the centre of the wall. These items are only effected by gravity when their corresponding colour is triggered. The various hues of the world correspond to blocks and platforms. The changing directional force of gravity is the core puzzle component in Manifold Garden. Combine this with the looping world and you’re effectively able to explore every surface in the game. As you change the direction in which gravity pulls, you change the hue of the world in general. Each gravitational plane also corresponds to a colour. This effectively makes that plane of existence the ground. Walk up to a wall, close enough to touch it with your target reticule, and press the R2 trigger and you’ll walk onto the wall. What complicates this further is that the player gets to dictate the direction in which gravity travels. See a platform above your head? It’s also somewhere below you too. Thankfully, it’s possible to move in the air so that you can guide your fall rather than plummeting forever. Walk off one platform and you’ll fall forever, passing the same platform you stepped off repeatedly. Primarily, the whole game is contained within looping worlds. That’s because the world of Manifold Garden follows a few unique rules. Actually achieving any of this is easier said than done however. Line up the world objects so that this line on the floor is connected. A result of expert iterative design, this game boils down its puzzles into simple to understand aims. Most of the objectives in Manifold Garden are self explanatory. ![]() While the core aims of the game are familiar in the puzzle genre, everything else about Manifold Garden is entirely unique, steeped in imaginative artwork. At one point in development, this game was titled Relativity after the Escher print it was inspired by. Escher’s work – impossible geometry, complex architectural mazes, portals and perspective based reality – and adapts them for game play mechanics. Manifold Garden is a game that takes the core principles of artist M.C. I’d go as far as to say that the PS5 version is the definitive way to play Manifold Garden. The PS5 version doesn’t see any huge design improvements but does improve the overall experience. #Manifold garden deluxe edition PcThe Xbox One version that I called “the best first person puzzle game since Portal 2” last year had been significantly tightened up over the original PC version I’d played a year prior. Each time I’ve had a chance to play it, it has been improved somewhat. You’d think I’d be tired of playing through Manifold Garden, having done so 3 times already. Now here I am in 2021, saying it again for the PlayStation 5 launch. I reiterated it when I reviewed the game for its Xbox One launch in 2020. I said that when the game first launched on PC back in 2019. In my estimation, Manifold Garden is one of the best puzzle games to release in the past 5 years. ![]() Arriving on PS5, Manifold Garden is still one of the best and most though provoking puzzle games on the market. ![]()
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