A short review of Semblance
After what seemed forever, thanks to an internet provider issue, I managed to download and install Semblance on launch day. It was about 11pm at that point and I had an early morning the next day.
Thanks to an Internet service provider issue, my copy of Semblance hadn't downloaded until 11pm on launch day. I had an early day, so the obvious thing to do was go to bed. I therefore opened the game. Just for a quick look. If it wasn’t for my dog whining next to me for bedtime, I would still have been playing by the time I needed to wake up.
There is no chatter, just a basic story being told of Squish the purple blob that needs to save his world from teal alien invaders.
You bounce, squish, squirm, knock and bash your way through the levels, collecting pink sparks that heal your world.
The first few puzzles are easy, they teach you the basic mechanics and you learn quickly what can be manipulated, and what can't.
It is a very calm and relaxing game... Until I'm the one playing it and I get to a puzzle that is seriously obvious to solve. So easy and obvious that it took me 10 minutes. I had friends laughing at me on discord thanks to my descriptive wording at that point.
(Mercifully, when you die you just get respawned at the start of the puzzle, you don't have to redo everything!)
So far I haven’t found any of the bugs that were reported by others, making it difficult to comment on from my experience.
Overall, Semblance is a cute, pretty game, offering a variety of puzzles ranging from easy to headscratchers.
Aside from the beautiful and cute visuals, what I love is that you don't have to bash your head against a puzzle if you're stuck. You can leave the map and try different puzzles to avoid getting frustrated.
Semblance is available on Steam (R109), GOG ($9.99), and the Nintendo eShop (R130).
It is well worth it.