Prism: Light the way Review

Anannya Sen’s Review

A fiendishly addictive little game.

Prism is not a new concept. In fact, it's been done a few times before on mobile as well, and games such as Absolute Puzzle Deluxe and Da Vinci Code Light Puzzle are the proof of this. Still, the concept remains a great basis for a puzzle game. In case you are unsure of what I??????m talking about, you have a light source (sometimes more than one), and you have to reflect this around the level so that it shines on these little creatures called Glowbos who live in the black hole of Oog. I have a masters in Astrophysics so it's best I don't even go there. The glowbos are different colours and you have to manipulate the light sources to get the correct colours to shine on the glowbos.

This can be done through reflective surfaces which bounce the light off at different angles, blocks which split the white light into it's three component colours (yellow, red and blue) as well as tubes which split a single beam into two other perpendicular directions. Finally you also have a glowing cube which changes colours every few seconds. What this means is that the levels can get pretty complex. The glowbos are positioned around the edges of the level and the actual space in the level to place the light manipulation objects is not that large. The complication arises from the variety of objects and light sources you have to play with. Glowbos will be one of four colours (white, red, blue and yellow) and you can often have 3 red ones, two yellow, two blues and a white on the screen to hit with the correct light source. If you then take into account that the equipment you are given can only really be placed a certain way (not always exact positions, but the light flow should be a certain way) for the level to be completed and you also can get a large number of different things (4 light sources, 3 splitters) to place then you can see where the complication lies.

Don??????t get me wrong though, the game starts of very simple and builds itself up. The first few levels will have you with maybe one light source and one reflector or splitter and they get gradually more and more complicated. There are also three modes to play which are Time attack (you get bonus time added to your next go if you finish the level quickly), puzzle mode (where there are just screens of puzzles) and infinite mode where you just keep on playing. A nice touch allows you to save your favourite levels to the My Levels mode to play again later if you wish.

I love to sit there and figure these types of things out so I started off with puzzle mode. Each screen has 8 levels and you have to finish 6 of them to unlock the next screen. I am currently on screen 7 and have finished the first two so that means I have played 50 levels. And now it??????s getting tough, where I can spend ages trying combinations and eventually pull out what??????s left of my hair (I wear it very short) before the relatively simple answer dawns on me and I unleash a homeresque D??????oh as I realise the correct arrangement.

This is the addictive part of the game, as the levels are not large but just complicated, you feel that you can figure out what you have to do and then realise it's harder than it looks. But a few attempts should make your brain begin to see a pattern emerging and after a while the answer usually falls into place. Or it has up until now. And there have been some very sneaky levels where the arrangement was not that obvious to begin with!

As you may have guess I am a big fan of the gameplay even if it has been done before. I think what's different here is the polish and also the fact that the levels can get pretty complex. I am still actually playing through puzzle mode to see how many levels there are. The other two modes make nice additions but I don't enjoy being under a time limit when I am trying to figure out something that can take a good 10 minutes.

A quick word about the other aspects, the graphics as you would expect, look pretty basic, but then there are some really nice little touches in there. Puzzle games have never been renowned for having lavish 3D aesthetics, and instead rely on solid gameplay, yet the developers have managed to make the game look interesting. The dark aspect of the menus and backgrounds definitely reinforce the image of playing in a black hole and the glowbos themselves look pretty cute. They have expressions so when not having any light on them, they look a little meek, if you shine the wrong colour they get frightened and beging shaking and if you hit the right colour there's a big smile and waves of joy. The light itself looks nice and is definitely colourful enough when you split it into components. Also notice that there are actually little light particles that travel along the beams to the glowbos which has a cool look. Sound is a little basic, you get a weak opening tune and some sound effects (tones basically) in the game depending on what you do (if you are moving things, get the right colour for a glowbo or even the wrong one).

Controls are simple, use the pad or stick to move your pointer around and press the button to grab something. Move it and then press again to drop it. The game also unusually features an autolock mode which you can set in the options menu so it will automatically grab something after a set amount of time. This means you don't even have to use the centre button so it's easy to play with one hand on the train (or under the table at a board meeting). The game will even save your position if you don't quit fully.

If you are a fan of puzzle games, this is one that you should definitely get and will have you wracking your brains to no end. Just make sure you don't get obsessed with solving the levels in the way I did!