Manifold Garden

Manifold Garden is two games, both with incredible potential but both failing to properly explore that potential. At its base, Manifold is a uniquely freeing and beautiful game. Gone are level borders, instead having the world continuously loop in every direction, and having you traverse between levels through portals. Instead of a jump button, you can freely rotate the world around you to 6 different directions, each with a respective colour code. The art style is minimalist in a way that sharply defines every edge of each surface. This works perfectly for a game where your movement finesse is reliant on understanding the position and direction of every surface around you. The sound design is cinematic and booming in a way that sells the infinite size of the world(s) in the garden. In terms of aesthetics, this game is an easy 10/10. Most of the reviews here are about the any% (or "normal") route, so I will only touch on it briefly: The any% route is a walking simulator that occasionally presents you with puzzles, ones that take longer to parse than to solve. The gravity blocks are where most of these puzzles are based around, and they are very fun to work with. Unfortunately, these puzzles barely get more complex than they are at the start of the game, with most involving you performing one trick with a couple of blocks (and not even the coolest ones you can do with them). Other mechanics are later introduced but are neglected just as much. The game seems much more interested in flaunting its grand world, with many rooms just having you traversing intricate architecture to find reach the next portal. Don't get me wrong, it's all very cool, but makes the game feel empty of substance. I didn't even understand the hub until my second playthrough, I just went where the game took me. A standard run of this game only requires you to view the world, not understand it, and I think that's a real shame. -- (Mild spoilers from here on out) -- Then there's the other side of Manifold Garden, the hidden side, experienced mostly through the "God Mode" (or 0%) run. Throughout the world there are some extremely hidden paths that allow you to take an entirely different passage to the end. I did not find these on my own, having a friend instead tell me which rooms each secret was in. Apart from the mindless searching, I could call my God Mode run one of the best gaming experiences I've had in a while, but not for reasons the game intended. God Mode offers both new enclosed, standalone puzzles and larger, open ended meta puzzles which involve transporting blocks from different parts of the world. The new standalone puzzles were a let down, there were some decent rooms but overall it was still quite basic. The meta puzzles is where the insanity begins, and where I need to bring up the biggest issue with this game. Manifold Garden is buggy, extremely buggy. Collision will break, objects will deload, buttons will freeze and your character will get stuck on awkward geometry. I was lucky enough to have these bugs only serve as a mild inconvenience, sometimes even acting as new problems to be solved, but this was only because I had an unconventional route through God Mode. For most players, this will break the route's most fun challenge and could softlock them, forcing a manual reload. This is unacceptable, especially when the game has sections that require you to perform long, repetitive tasks and form fragile setups. It destroys all immersion in the game and it blows my mind that such obvious bugs went unfixed upon launch and remain in the game to this day. Even though most of this review has been complaining, my thoughts on Manifold Garden lean positive overall. It has its shortcomings, but is so unique and novel that I can't help but appreciate it. I'd rather play a game that is both great and terrible than one that is derivative and tepid, though I hope that one day someone will take this concept much further.

i love this game its super relaxing and easy puzzle however u may struggle if you arent a puzzle person the only thing i dislike about the game is how short it is they should add more levels or mabey community levels unless they exist already idk

Manifold Garden is a perfect example of why it is good that videogames exist, because they allow for forms of expression that would be impossible in any other media. The game is visually stunning, its puzzles are challenging without ever becoming insurmontably hard, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Strongly recommended, pretty much to anyone.