The Architect – Review
These days, most popular games are being developed by large groups of developers. Heck, some games even have five full-time people working on explosions alone and Grand Theft Auto V had a 265 million dollar budget. It’s hard to imagine people solely pulling off the entire process of creating a game. The Architect is an example that it is possible, it’s created by one-man development studio Spooky Star. Can it stand in a world filled with giants?
Story
Puzzlers don’t often offer any meaningful content story wise, the Architect is a something different though. While there are no hours and hours of Hollywood-style cut-scenes, the story is presented through simple text making the whole experience feel mysterious. It’s a story about an object (mysterious, yet insignificant) trying to create a new world. Guiding it is another object which previously failed at the task and uses it knowledge to guide you in the right direction.
Graphics
The Architect is a simple game in terms of graphics. What you see is what you get, a background and the puzzle itself. The only gripe I encountered was the fact that all the objects in the game, like the cubes it’s constructed of, are all partially see-through which in certain situations was confusing when certain assets were stacked on one another.
Sound
The music in the menus and the background track while you play add to the mysterious character of the game. It brings a certain pulse which helps you think while also keeping you enticed and invested. Collecting the colored balls feels satisfying thanks to the little sound effects. A little bit more of these effects would have been appreciated to make the game feel alive a little bit more.
Gameplay
The Architect is a puzzler. While there are tons of complicated puzzlers out there, in this one the concept is pretty straightforward. You control the object and are able to move it in all four directions and you have two ways of modifying the platforms. By collecting blue and green balls you can either move a platform up or down. Using these modifications you have to try and reach the end of the level. There are also force fields which upon entering teleport you to another field. Lastly there are special fields which take you to another level, while these are optional they do tell you a little bit more about the story. Setting up the controls is a little annoying at first. It can’t be done in game but needs to be configured before you launch it. Certainly when you’re not familiar with the concept of the game, there’s a bit of trial and error involved. There is also support for controllers but I found playing the game with a controller to be a hassle so I stuck with my keyboard and mouse.
When starting a new game you can either select the easier or harder difficulty. The easier difficulty allows you to complete a level simply by reaching the end but the harder one requires you to collect every single green and blue ball. The first few levels are pretty straightforward and mainly serve as an introduction but the later levels get really complex, expect to spend a good couple of hours completing these in the hardest difficulty. A couple of cool features are also on the way in the form of future patches such as Steam Workshop integration. The addition of the workshop could help the game a great deal as players would be able to add levels. That would address the main problem I have with the game: not enough levels.
Conclusion
The Architect is a fun little puzzler when you’re up for it. And you have to be up for it because to complete the game in the hardest difficulty, you’ll have to spend some serious time figuring out all your moves. Thumbs up for developer Spooky Star for creating one of the better puzzlers we’ve seen recently. Let’s just hope the integration of Steam Workshop will bring more content to the game.
The Architect - Review,
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