Re-Embodied

Although it’s not difficult to get people interested in a puzzle, the hard part is to keep them engaged over long periods of time, because frustration and boredom settle in fast if the experience is not rewarding in some kind of way. There are situations where the challenge alone is capable of doing that, but most of the time that’s just not enough on its own.

Re-Embodied is a puzzle game featuring a top-down perspective and a pretty hands-on set of gameplay mechanics. There are very few moments of dead time over the course of the levels, since you are constantly on the move, or trying to deal with situations that require immediate attention. In short, you play the role of a robot trying to open doors, dodge traps and avoid enemies.

The name of the robot is EVA, and it receives assistance from an AI that guides it through the levels, offering advice when new types of obstacles or enemies make an appearance. Granted, the story is not the main concern, and it is obvious that the designers did not emphasize on it. However, it shouldn’t affect the overall experience, although you only need to think of Portal and realize just how much better puzzles games can get with a good story behind them.

EVA’s main tool is an airgun that allows you to move stuff around, without actually destroying anything. It can be used to move boxes and activate buttons, much like the cubes in Portal, or it can be used to push enemies into deadly traps. There’s not much variety in this regard, but taken as a whole, the mechanics do not feel overly repetitive, at least not immediately.

The level design is decent as well, yet not very memorable or particularly engaging. Each room is more or less the same when it comes to appearance and mechanics, but the layout changes over time and the mazes become trickier to navigate later on. The graphics are nice too, but the top-down perspective means that you don’t get to see much detail.

While Re-Embodied has its flaws and weaknesses at the moment, the game is still in development, meaning that it’s constantly improved and augmented. Still, more variety is needed, as well a higher degree of attention to level design, otherwise players might become bored after a certain point.