Nebulous (2016)

Nebulous is a challenging puzzle game that allows for creativity and freedom in completing the levels. There are aspects of the game that are unnecessary and there are a few polish issues, but what remains is a game with more than one unique idea.

For this kind of puzzle game Nebulous is sufficient enough but just one I can’t recommend for the price point it’s at. It’s not a long game and if you’re like me you may grow bored of it long before you even finish the small amount of levels here. It’s got great writing and rewards experimentation but everything else about the game is just kind of bland. If you like puzzle games and catch it on sale one day I’d say give it a shot but for $15 I’d say to avoid it for now.

The game definitely started out very easy so that I could get a feel for what it expected me to do, and before the first galaxy was over, I was already juggling several panels as I tried to rush to implement the right solution so that I could get a three-star rating for the level by completing it in the least number of attempts as possible while quickly grabbing all the stars. After writing this Nebulous review, I can say I’ve had fun with the game and that my puzzle skills have been tested to their limit by this tricky space puzzler you should play on PS4.

At the end of the day, I can’t really say I wasn’t heavily disappointed with what Nebulous offered me. I was excited to throw down, but once I did, I found myself bored, frustrated, and sad, often at the same time. Not good. I was hoping they’d fix some of the issues with patches post launch, and while I did see at least one come through, it didn’t do anything I could notice. Such a shame, because this could have been a huge hit with me. Maybe they’ll fine tune it even more by the time VR hits, but, I’m not jumping on that bandwagon, so this has to be it for me. /sadface.jpeg

Quirky. Entertaining. Challenging. These are all words I would use to describe Namazu Studios' release Nebulous. It is a lightweight game that reminds me of the mobile hit Cut the Rope, but with more sophistication. The end result is a decent game that will chew up a few hours of your time here and there, but is never what I would consider a great or memorable experience either.