Paused Demo

Although most puzzle games rely on the fact that the fans of the genre have the patience to go through extremely slow-paced sections, there are also developers that opt to go in a different direction. Hence, puzzles can still be part of the fun even when the action is more engaging, although much of the complexity is lost in the process. This is not a bad thing if the rest of the game is worth the effort.

Paused is a third-person adventure game with puzzle elements, in which the goal is to explore the environment and solve puzzles by slowing down time itself. Even if it sounds complicated, the game is actually very simple in most regards, and it only takes a few minutes to get accustomed to all the gameplay elements. Granted, this is barely a short demo at the moment, so don’t expect a lot of variety.

You play the role of an otter exploring a canyon, with the special ability of being able to slow down time itself. This comes in handy when it comes to overcoming obstacles, because you can open doors and operate other mechanisms by simply being in the right spot at the right time. There’s no greater purpose than to get to a higher level of the canyon, but the adventure is worth the struggle.

In order to slow down time you have to hold down a specific button, and sometimes you have to do so for seconds on end for something to happen. This can be a bit disorienting at first, because it might look like your actions have no effect. Other than that, your other job is to jump from one platform to the other and somehow avoid all the obstacles that lie ahead.

The graphics are not groundbreaking in any way, but they are a notch above most indie productions nowadays. Most of this is because of the level design itself, which albeit a tad repetitive at times, it really makes you feel like you are exploring a special place. The animations are not bad either, and the special effects are nice when you mess with time.

Paused is too short to be a proper game at the moment, but the demo is very enjoyable and promising. Thus, we can only hope that the developers continue on this path and provide us with a great full-length feature.