Spacecaps

19 hours in at the time of this review and I'm still not even quite half way through the game. This game has a very unique movement/gravity system as its basic mechanic. There is no true up or down, only left and right movement, but left and right depend on your orientation on a given platform or block. It's pretty confusing at first, but it starts to make sense once you've completed the first few puzzles. The goal is simply to cover a glowing point or points with movable blocks--that's it. But the game forces you to exploit its unique movement mechanics to their full extent. Some puzzles look impossible at first, but persistence and experimentation will often surprise you with what can be done with such simple mechanics. Once more than half the levels in a given "zone" are complete, a new zone becomes available which adds a new feature to interact with the basic movement system, often making the game progressively harder, but very enjoyable to see how the new mechanisms change the puzzles and what's possible. The graphics, of course, are extremely basic, but don't let that fool you into thinking this is a boring game. The puzzles are top notch and very enjoyable. And …

If you want a real challenge, get ready to put in some work. It might take awhile to come to grips with the mechanics, so I'd recommend going over solved levels a couple more times to really lock it in. But the reward is a bounty of clever puzzles that will stretch your brain. One for the hardcore enthusiasts.

Bad art. Awkward movement. Stupid difficult ultra fiddly late game levels that I probably won't ever complete. Despite all that, Spacecaps is a wonderful puzzle game until it devolves into maddening chaos in Chapter 7 out of 8. Overall I recommend Spacecaps with the caveat that puzzle grippiness takes a big drop near the end. Chapter 7 puzzles make the misstep of being less about keen insight and mostly about super precise positioning. Perhaps Chapter 8 could be a redemption, but I can't speak to that because I am trapped in Chapter 7 hell with no level unlock option. To the developer's credit, they did mitigate the slipperiness of Chapter 7 somewhat with a "gain insight" option. What is good here is really good and the game is certainly worth your time if you're in the mood for some real brain busters. Just go in with caution about the late game puzzle design.

Post 100% review: time to complete: roughly 9 hours. This game is certainly possible to complete much faster than i did, however i suck at puzzle games, and there werent any walkthoughs online i could conveniently follow. GAMEPLAY: the gameplay isnt well polished, although each mechanic introduced per world is unique, and taught in a way that is understandable. i personally found most of the levels in this game quite tough (partially because i'm smooth brained) the puzzles were well designed and actually had me thinking hard. i didnt find any ways to beat any of the levels in unintended ways, which is a problem i find in most puzzle games i've played so far. SOUNDTRACK: i'm not a fan of the soundtrack, mainly it just being a constant loop got a bit annoying, so i just had youtube running and watched stuff while i played. overall 6/10. mid game, good puzzles. i wouldnt buy it, but seeing as to how i got it as a bundle with a bunch of other games from artless, i'm happy with the value i got out of it. i would reccommend it if you are into puzzle games. it was alright.

It really exceeds expectations

I just completed chapter 3. It is really fun so far and I can see that it will get increasingly cursed and evil. I think the main mechanic is a good balance for a sokoban game, as being just slightly finicky but then if you think about it, you can formulate solutions perfectly well. If I have 1 criticism, it would have to be the music. I mean no disrespect to Kevin McLeod but the music feels a bit ill-fitting and I would prefer something like ambient drone, just my opinion