The story doesn’t rely on knowledge from the previous game but doesn’t seem to build on anything established either. You play as Amelia Cross, a scientist that’s become stranded on the desolate alien cube most of the game plays out in. 2 presents, which struggles to find a consistent pace. The same can’t be said for the encompassing narrative that Q.U.B.E. Several patterns emerge over the six hours of puzzling-I found myself always placing a green tile above a blue one to spawn and instantly propel a cube, for example-but their application in new challenges that tax your spacial awareness never really gets stale. Light-bulb moments permeate the game from the opening seconds to its riveting conclusion, with only a few puzzles that seem out of place in terms of difficulty. As you progress rooms will start taking on themes around these new physics, giving you a playground to comfortably experiment with them before zooming out to larger, all encompassing cranial challenges. 2 introduces each of these auxiliary mechanics in digestible chunks.
Just like the three core abilities, Q.U.B.E. Later, elements like slippery oil come into play, as do magnetic tiles, rotatable platforms, and restrictive doorways that require either sheer force or elemental damage (like fire) to bust open. These can, for example, allow you to propel cubes at high speeds, or give you a much-needed lift to a previously inaccessible area. Just as you’re comfortable with spawning a cube and getting it from one side of the room to another, an element like arrays of high-powered fans is introduced.
Each scenario has a unique twist to the trials that came before it, introducing new mechanics and obstacles. 2 tasks you with solving are complex in makeup and exciting in execution despite this. Such design can be helpful in latter stages where the scope and size of the space you’re solving in grows to overwhelming levels, but it's somewhat disappointing that you're never given complete freedom to concoct unusual solutions. Their placement always feels deliberate, acting as signposts for the eventual solution. Although you have the freedom to paint any neutral white tile to a color of your choosing, there’s still only a finite number of them in any given space. You can’t use these abilities anywhere, though, which starts to resemble the restrictive layout of the first game. Learning how these three mechanics intermingle is gratifying, and the intricate levels laid out in a linear fashion do a good job of showing you just how you’re meant to employ them. You can use a red block, for example, to push a green block in front of it, perhaps into a nearby blue spring block that launches it into the air and onto a switch nearby. Red blocks can be extended and retracted at will blue blocks turn neutral white tiles into springy bouncing boards and green blocks let you create a cube of matter that you can further manipulate, either by moving them around with other abilities to activate switches or use them as additional steps to reach a higher ledges. The options you’re given are still somewhat limited to compensate for this, with only three distinct abilities at your disposal. Armed with a new set of gauntlets that have pulsating neon energy flowing through them, that small amount of freedom is exactly what Q.U.B.E. had you manipulating different colored blocks in increasingly challenging puzzle rooms, it never gave you agency over their initial placement. You enter a room and need to figure out a solution to either exit it at the other end or interact with a specific object (like a power node that routes energy) to open doors elsewhere. As was the case with the first game, the objective in Q.U.B.E 2 is simply about moving forward. 2 redefines how its puzzles work from the start. If you played the original game, it might be surprising to hear that Q.U.B.E. It sometimes struggles to shake off the shackles of its deeply rooted narrative limitations, but it’s ultimately a wonderful puzzle game that will often have you exclaiming in joy after solving one of its many riddles. 2 gives you the tools to have greater flexibility with your solutions and feels more rewarding as a result. No longer are you messing with unmalleable puzzle rooms Q.U.B.E. 2 is the sophomore follow-up that almost ticks all the right boxes. was a product of experimental design and unhindered student ambition, Q.U.B.E.