Manipulated Demo

Robots are a very important part of our lives even today, in spite of the fact that they are mostly found in factories right now. However, AI technology is rapidly advancing at a steady pace, so it’s only normal that automation is going to be a much more important part of our lives in the future. In fact, some fear that the machines are going to overthrow our society if they are not kept under control.

Manipulated is a 2D platformer with an emphasis on puzzles and exploration, in which you get to use logic in order to get out of sticky situations and fight nasty robots at the same time. The adventure takes place in a future where robots have taken over and they are not particularly friendly, so they are actively trying to terminate any humans they come in contact with.

The platformer elements are not too polished, on the other hand, since the jumping is not very precise, and your character moves rather slowly as well. On the other hand, there’s rarely any need for quick jumps or anything of the sort, and the game is not very fast-paced to begin with. In fact, the puzzles sometimes take a lot of thinking time, which is obviously a good thing.

Your character can move, jump, shoot and interact with objects every now and again, whether by activating buttons, or simply by pushing them around using her body. Enemies usually patrol certain areas in a back and forth fashion, but every now and again you stumble upon robots that actively pursue you, and they are obviously a tad tougher to destroy.

In case you get stuck trying to solve the puzzles, the game features a few hints that should help you move on, but you need to wait a few minutes until they are unlocked. As far as the graphics are concerned, everything about the game is pretty simple in this regard, but the colors are nice, and you can tell that the designers tried their best in terms of level design. The music is not too bad either, even if it can get a tad repetitive after a while.

In the end, Manipulated is not very original in terms of mechanics, but the puzzles are quite ingenious, and they can really put your wits to the test sometimes. The action sequences are not too bad either, depending on whether you use a gamepad or the keyboard.