Jacob

Depending on your view on the matter, life is something that’s either a given, or something you mold with your own hands. Hence, you can either choose to think about it as a set of random obstacles you are forced to deal with, or a sandbox that allows you to build or destroy anything you want. There’s obviously no right answer, but it can seriously affect your mindset and cause you to take very different decisions, depending on how you see things.

Jacob is a puzzle game based on the idea that life throws things at you every now and again and the only thing you can do is avoid them or get suffocated underneath them. In short, life is represented as a ladder going up, and your job is to build it piece-by-piece in order to get as high as possible. It’s a pretty rudimentary analogy, but it can work if you have an open mind.

The gameplay is a tad annoying right from the first seconds, given the fact that although the developers promote relaxation and clarity, you are fighting against a very strict timer. Thus, you have a few seconds to place a couple of pieces and climb them, otherwise the turn ends and you lose everything you’ve built. It’s quite hardcore, and it basically throws relaxation out the window.

The pieces you build your ladder with are displayed on the right side of the screen and they are randomly generated, which means that you won’t be able to repeat the same experience twice. On the other hand, there are only so many permutations and different piece models, so it’s not that mind-blowing when you think about it. Clouds prevent you from going up, so the only option is to go sideways until the road ahead clears.

As for the technical aspect, the game runs pretty smoothly, but then again there’s not much to it in regards to algorithms and graphics. Speaking of which, the 2D artwork is not bad, but it doesn’t look like it belongs with the theme. The same goes for the music, which is a bit too faded to have any impact on you and make you remember the experience.

In the end, Jacob is not exactly a bad game, but it’s not very good either. The fact that it’s based on a real study means nothing, unfortunately, because the ideas are not expressed in a very intriguing way. However, it’s a nice first project, and it would be great to see more from the developers in the future.