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Colour Bind (PC) Review

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  • Colour Bind (PC) Review

    Colour Bind
    Colour Bind is a hybrid of puzzle solving and platforming that will make every effort to turn you on your head, literally. See, the catch with Colour Bind is that gravity changes depending on a number of factors. The player can activate switches to alter the direction gravity pulls. Sometimes this affects all objects, sometimes it only affects objects of a certain color, sometimes all of these factors are working at once.

    It is this fundamental concept that, when combined with having to move a color changing space buggy around, makes for the main challenge behind the game. It's always a simple matter of having to get from point A to point B within a level, but the difficulty comes in what happens in between those two points. There are over 50 levels in Colour Bind, with more always being a possibility thanks to the robust, though often confusing level editor. Starting off simple, the levels will get incredibly challenging as you make your way through the game. Unfortunately, much of the challenge comes from physics not always doing the same thing twice, which leads to having to restart a level. This can be rather annoying when facing some of the longer, more challenging later levels.


    To help you in figuring out which way gravity is flowing, there are colored icons at the bottom of the screen. They point out in which direction gravity is flowing for each color as well as the relative strength of the gravity pull. It's not the most elegant system as you sometimes have to divert your eyes away from what you're doing just to see the gravity direction. There are some other environmental clues but these are not always present in each level.

    Gameplay does entail a bit more than moving the space buggy around a level and contending only with gravity. Various obstacles do stand in your way of reaching the end goal, including unstable bridges, colored balls that must be finagled to hit buttons, trapdoors, and more. As is the case with everything else, these objects are also affected by the flow of gravity as it corresponds to their color. The buggy itself does have a special jump ability, which can be turned into a high jump simply by timing the landing of the initial jump. Thanks to the vehicle's design, it can move equally well whether or not it is right side up, or upside down.

    Colour Bind is, for its price ($9.99 through Steam), an admirable go at the fairly crowded puzzle platformer genre. It is often quite challenging, which is both a good thing and a bad thing, especially when part of the challenge comes from having to sometimes wrestle with the game's physics. Gameplay can be extended beyond the pre-built levels, but that's only if people can figure out the rather intricate nature of the level creator. Even then, you may not want to play any more as it is possible to get burnt out having to tackle some of the more difficult later levels over and over again.


    Colour Bind Pros
    • The game presents a unique gameplay offering here. There aren't too many games out there where toying with the flow of gravity is the core gameplay element. Though often confusing and difficult later on, the gameplay mechanic that is the core of Colour Bind is actually quite refreshing.

    • It's got a generally pleasing, simple aesthetic. The backgrounds are sparse, almost to a fault, and never distracting. The areas and objects in which you can interact with are very apparent. This is, however, also one of the game's downfalls.

    • There is a lot of content offered up here for the price. Again, for about $10 you get over 50 levels of gameplay, leaderboards and online rankings, local multiplayer, and a level editor.

    • Colour Bind is great for short bursts of gameplay. The early levels are knocked out fairly quickly, allowing you to get through a few levels at a time in about 15 minutes.

    • Contextual clues within some of the levels, namely the earlier ones, give you immediate feedback on whether or not you screwed up and prevented yourself from being able to finish a level. This is incredibly handy so that you don't waste any more time than necessary trying to solve a puzzle that is unsolvable because of what you did previously.


    Colour Bind Cons
    • The difficulty is sometimes frustrating. It doesn't feel like a very linear progression but more of an exponential increase in the overall difficulty as you make your way through the levels. This is just a personal take on the difficulty, I fully understand that a super challenging title is something that will appeal to many fans of puzzlers.

    • Physics glitches will often screw you over more than legitimately screwing up a puzzle will. Couple this with a buggy that will sometimes flip forward a bit too much and it becomes rather frustrating to play at times.

    • The level editor, namely its interface, feels closer to something you would see in Maya or 3D Studio Max. It's not the most user friendly editor but it is robust enough to allow creators to make some fairly intricate puzzles.

    • The buggy sometimes feels a bit too floaty. No, I don't just mean when it's under the effects of changing gravitational pulls, I mean in general. It also doesn't always help matters that it can drive while inverted. This sometimes messes with your sense of direction as the buggy's controls will become reverse of what you think it should be. When you couple this with the ever changing gravity and being able to drive on the walls and ceiling, the frustration can quickly compound itself.

    • Though the visuals are not the main focus, it does get tiresome seeing nothing but light grey on black backgrounds with bits of color thrown in here and there. A few details would have been great to see in the landscape, rather than always seeing shapeless grey forms. While this works well for keeping the focus of the game on puzzle solving, sometimes I wished that there was a bit more eye candy going on.


    Final Thoughts
    For the most part Colour Bind is an enjoyable, if not difficult, puzzle platformer. It's affordably priced at just $9.99 and offers up a lot of content if you're willing to stick with it. This isn't a game for those looking for an easy ride nor is it for those who give up on games or puzzles too easily.

    Colour Bind was created by just one man, Finn Morgan and published by Puppy Punch, a rather small publisher situated in Florida. It's about as indie a title as you can possibly get here. For being created by one man there's a lot of promise here, but it just might not be everyone's particular cup of tea.

    Overall: 7/10
    Gameplay: 7/10
    Audio: 7/10
    Visuals: 6/10
    Value: 8.5/10


    Relevant Links
    Colour Bind on Steam ($9.99 USD)
    Colour Bind on Amazon ($9.99 USD)
    Colour Bind official website



    Colour Bind was reviewed on the PC. It was provided to TGN for review purposes.
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