On the Download: Quantum Conumdrum

For the last few weeks there has been a little drought of noteworthy downloadable games to justify doing a new edition of On the Download.  With retail releases slowing down for the summer, gamers look to downloadable initiatives like the Summer of Arcade for XBLA and the just announced 8-Bit Summer for the Nintendo eShop to keep them entertained during the summer gaming drought.  To officially start the summer is Airtight Games' Quantum Conundrum just released yesterday for download on Steam.

From the mind of Kim Swift, the lead designer of popular puzzle game Portal, and her team at Airtight Games, Quantum Conundrum is a first-person physics-based puzzle game in the vein of Portal.  Instead of thinking with portals, you manipulate objects and the environment by switching dimensions on the fly in order to solve puzzles.  In Quantum Conundrum, you play as the 12 year old nephew of eccentric scientist and inventor Profesor Quadwrangle.  You are dropped off at Professor Quadwragle's mansion to spend some time with your uncle.  Shortly after arriving at the mansion, an explosion occurs, which causes the Professor to go missing.  Trying to figure out what is going on, you stumble upon a glove that turns out to be the Interdimensional Shift Device (ISD for short), which must be used to navigate Professor Quadwrangle's mansion in order to find your missing uncle.  Throughout Quantum Conundrum, you use the Interdimensional Shift Device (ISD) to shift between four dimensions (fluffy, heavy, anti-gravity and slow-mo) each with their own attributes to solve puzzles in each room of Professor Quadwrangle's mansion.

There is no doubt.  Quantum Conundrum is very similar to Portal, but they were designed by the same person.  You can see why there are big similarities between the two.  While I do not think Qunatum Conundrum will reach the popularity or universal acclaim of Portal, it is a unique downloadable puzzle game that looks to test your brain in new and creative ways.  From what I saw at E3, I was very impressed with Quantum Conundrum and it is a game that looking to download in the near future.  At the moment, Quantum Conundrum is only available on Steam for 15 dollars.  For console owners, do not fret as Qunatum Conundrum is coming to XBLA and PSN on July 11th.