Transpose is a pleasant, complicated surprise puzzle VR game that will put your patience to the test, as well as your cognitive skills. If you enjoy puzzle games, such as The Witness, then this one will probably be up your alley.
Oh, a puzzle game in VR? That sounds fun, right? Well, shit. It is fun.
Transpose from Secret Location came out of nowhere last month. It’s a complicated VR puzzle game that revolves around secrets of the universe, though an undetermined narrative is pretty much where you’re going to end up when playing it. It uses its clever physics, clever gameplay design options, as well as clever level layout to keep you engaged. If you’re a fan of Star Trek time travel, then you’re going to be in business with this one.
The game starts out by showing you the controls. You use the left Move controller to walk forward, a combination of the square button and triangle button to shift left/right. In addition, head movement is tracked, so if you look left while walking, then you’re now walking left (be careful of this because I fell off many bridges admiring the environment). The right Move controller will allow you to jump, much like you would experience in Valve’s The Lab, where jumping around is more encouraged than walking. The combination of both controllers is your main movement in the game. It takes a little bit to get used to the controls fully, maybe an hour or so, but it becomes second nature as you shift through the game.
The name of this game, outside of moving around very carefully design levels, is grabbing, going, and going again. The first challenging level, because the first three are basically tutorials, happens in the first world (kind of like Mario 1-1 through 1-4) — (three worlds so far), in the fourth level of the first world. In this level, there are two cubes that you have to acquire and place into cube holders. The cubes are in two different sides of the level, only accessible by sliding platforms. The platforms aren’t activated until you move a single switch into position (a flip switch from up to down).
Once in down position, the first platform moves towards a cube on a top-tier platform, while the bottom platform shifts away from the second cube. You must catch the top platform and acquire the cube (you can grab them), throw the cube to the bottom platform, then press the circle button to restart the level. Now, restarting the level doesn’t mean you’ve wiped out what you just did, rather it means you can continue on from the start, move time forward, and watch your former self go through the top-tier steps and throw the cube down to your second self.
See how much fun this is?
Before moving on, let’s talk about this second self thingy. You can shift time forward by using a small crystal acquired in an empty echo shell of yourself from a past time (they are non-moving characters shells/echoes of yourself, where you can grab small crystals from their chest to gain abilities or additional selves). Once you pull the crystal from the echo of yourself, it nestles onto your left armband (the kind of looks like an Assassin’s Creed wrist-knife), where you can use your right arm to shift it forward on a slider bar. By the way, you will run into these empty echoes of yourself through nearly every level, which add bands on your right arm that, as I can only assume, allow you to have multiple selves residing in the same space before you have to reset and wipe the whole puzzle.
Very creative stuff, and relative to the adventure and gameplay design.
Anyway, getting back to the fourth level of the first world, once you conquer the cube on the top-tier, you move onto the bottom-tier, which allows you to watch yourself, as you fast-forward time via the left arm crystal, throw the top cube to your present self on the bottom. Upon acquiring the cube, placing the cube in the cube holder, you then wait for your former self to move the bottom-tier platform into place to acquire the second cube. Once you acquire it, you throw it near the cube holder, circle yourself again, then fast-forward time to watch for the second cube from your former-former self. I’m glad none of that probably seemed confusing to you, dear readers.
The crux of the game is divided into two elements: 1. Patience 2. Strategy
Starting with the latter, there is no one way to complete levels, there are only limitations to how many selves you can use on a level. The strategy of it all is trying to use the least amount of selves in the shortest span of time. There are trophies to be had from your well thought out success. The strategy part of Transpose is what will keep you motivated to keep trying to do better, while at the same time potentially exhausting your patience in the VR medium. I found myself fatiguing a bit while playing this game because I realized about 20-30 minutes into a puzzle that I did it wrong, or could have done it better. Granted, it is a puzzle game, so that should be expected, but the VR medium should be taken in medium doses, so having a good strategy is vital to get the most out of your Transpose puzzle experience.
All of the above requires a fare amount of patience. If you’re not a patient gamer, then you probably don’t need to pick this one up. It can be frustrating with little-to-no context sometimes when solving a puzzle, and it can be taxing on the nerves. If you’re a huge fan of The Witness, then you’ll be playing the right game with Transpose. Much like The Witness, you will find yourself coming back now and again, but definitely not trying to complete the game in a single sitting. It simply isn’t built for that type of gameplay. Having a fair amount of patience, knowing when to fold ‘em (as Kenny Rogers would say) is key to enjoying this game.
If you dig puzzles, and you have patience with a hint of strategy, then you’re going to absolutely adore the gameplay design of Transpose. It will put your cognitive bits to the test, which is what you want your puzzle VR game to do. There are a ton of puzzles in the game as well, so you won’t be bored.
On the visual side of the tracks, you’re in for a futuristic, artsy treat. While it’s not going to be Astro Bot pretty, it’s going to be a TRON-like visual adventure that will keep you looking all over the place, especially if you cross bridges (careful with that ‘look around’ thing — it could kill ya). The game feels deep, while at the same time restrictive enough to keep you focused on the task. There are some simple textures for echoes, detailed level design that makes you remember you’re in a fantastic future world, while at the same a cool factor in a vector graphic built self that can only be described as a calmer Super Hot. It’s a neat looking game that doesn’t distract you from your goals.
The only real knock I have against this game is the setup time at the beginning. It might have been me, but the Move controls were not cooperating at all during setup. The first time I played the game, my virtual arms were super long and un-movable. The second time they were twisted around. The third time, after I rebooted the entire system, everything was normal. It took me about 15 frustrating minutes to sort out this initial setup process, and I didn’t do anything special between attempts, other than a reboot. Once everything was fine, the game worked like clockwork, but wow it was not fun at the start.
Overall, Transpose is a pleasant, complicated surprise puzzle VR game that will put your patience to the test, as well as your cognitive skills. If you enjoy puzzle games, such as The Witness, then this one will probably be up your alley.
