Antichamber

Antichamber

Time to play: 90 minutes
Originally Bought: July 12, 2013

I'll confess it took someone else encouraging me to play this game for me to even try it.  Even though it had a fantastic rating on Steam, something in the marketing images made me believe this was some sort of Escher-esque maze I was going to have to work really hard to wrap my brain around - and I hate feeling like the mouse who can't find the cheese, and this one seemed ... hard? if not simplistic looking.

The game is amazing.  Their description IS pretty accurate, but it's less of a rat maze - and more of a drug/dream sequence, that's guided by both rigid literal rules ("Don't look behind you.") that make you want to resist and broad rules that you might not understand until ... you understand them.  ("Moving forward is backwards.")  Additionally, some things just need to be experienced..,

This is a game designed to mess with your mind.  My advice - strap in and go for it.

I'm actually not positive I finished - I'm not even sure how to know if I've finished at this point.  I mean, there was an exit door I could have walked through but I explored other puzzles instead.  I've made it to numerous dead end points that encourage me to "Esc" back to the starting room - but I can't tell from the map if there are unexplored points.



"Antichamber is a mind-bending psychological exploration game where nothing can be taken for granted. Discover an Escher-like world where hallways wrap around upon each other, spaces reconfigure themselves, and accomplishing the impossible may just be the only way forward."