1. ReThink is a 3D puzzle game. It's really good... except when it's not. Is this remarkable? I don't know.
2. There is an excuse plot which is you are being detained by some horrific future government and need to solve puzzles to escape. Future governments have odd ideas about imprisonment, I guess. I found this all online, by the way. The game doesn't make it too obvious what's going on.
3. Atmospherically, ReThink really works. The visuals have this unnaturally sanitary cleanness to them and the sound is really sparse. This makes for a really realistic backdrop to the contrived situation you are in.
4. The main type of puzzle here consists of refracting various lasers to hit targets. I've played a bunch of browser and mobile games w/ this sort of puzzle in them, always from a top-down perspective. Putting you in the actual space where the puzzle is being solved adds a lot to the equation. It forces you to think things through a bit more and rely on trial and error less. Or, it did for me. I'm a busy person. I don't have time to be walking back and forth trying every possible solution.
5. You will also find yourself having to walk across a series of switches w/o retracing your steps. You will place moveable blocks on the wall to traverse various gaps and you will have to manipulate walls and platforms to manipulate rolling balls to fall on switches. Some of these puzzles are fun but this content all feels a bit tacked on.
6. There are some platforming puzzles in this that are truly godawful. They'd feel out of place even if they were a fair challenge
but the controls are a bit weird and certain triggers are buggy, which often causes you to have to completely restart puzzles
you already have mostly solved.
7. Speaking of controls, this is mouse and keyboard only. There is no reason for this that I can tell.
8. I am pretty sure I cheesed at least one puzzle really badly, where it let me use a solution that was not supposed to work. Or maybe in just one instance there was a puzzle element that worked completely differently than it did in all other instances and that was intentional. Who knows for sure.
9. The difficulty of ReThink ramps smoothly up from the beginning then gets easy again when a new mechanic is added. It then gets smoothly more difficult until about the halfway point where there are some really tough bits and then it is really easy for the remainder.
10. During that difficult middle section, there are puzzles that depend on solutions to previous puzzles. The first puzzle can be solved easily but you need to come up w/ a more difficult solution in order to get the required elements to solve the next one. This is a really cool mechanic and I wish they had done more w/ it. As it stands, it lets you peek ahead to the next puzzle but you really do need to get the correct solution to the first puzzle before moving on so never gets all that interesting.
11. There is a bit of side content to complete but unfortunately none of it is in the laser refracting puzzle solving that comprises the game's best moments and some of it is of the infuriating jumping puzzle variety. You have to do a substantial portion of this stuff if you want the minimally different good ending but that is the only reason to do it.
12. Aside from some of the platforming, I rather enjoyed my time w/ ReThink and can definitely see myself delving into similar games from the same developer. Its presentation is pretty cool and the puzzles are satisfying where they work. A bit more polish and this could be a real winner.
13. Finally, I've gotten through a whole review of a 3D puzzle game w/o mentioning Portal... Goddammit.
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