Very good, not quite perfect

Odd Bot Out is a physics puzzler with 100 levels, each of which generally requires you to solve one or two short challenges - in most cases, one. Levels generally took me 30 seconds to 3 minutes, depending on the complexity, and I finished the game in a bit under 3 hours, which is ok for the price. It definitely creates a strong "just one more level" feeling, and its easy to complete 15 to 20 levels at a sitting. Here are the issues that bring it down a star for me:

1) The puzzle rules are wonky at times. For example, several levels require you to reason "if I stack block A on block B, I cant make it, but if I stack block B on block A, I can stretch an extra millimeter to make it". So that ends up being a bit of trial and error, which gives you much less of an "aha" moment. Alternatively, you need to sacrifice yourself (e.g. throw yourself into an inescapable pit) in some levels in order to even see what the challenge ahead actually looks like. This afflicts maybe 20% of the levels. A zoomed out puzzle overview before starting would fix this somewhat but would also break a few levels that legitimately require surprise. So Im not sure theres a solution to this without a pretty substantial redesign.

2) Too little building. The game introduces circuit logic, complete with and/not gates, but aside from the very last level, it doesnt let you play with these things on your own. You can also build all sorts of contraptions - catapults and rocket ships - yet actually building something from the ground up only solves a handful of levels - less than 5 that I remember. This might be partly remedied by an unlocked sandbox at the end of the game, but instead you get a severely nerfed sandbox, which only makes you more frustrated. Its like starting Minecraft and being told you can only build things on a list they give you.

On the bright side, problem #2 is easily solvable... Hopefully the devs are still working on it.

richdiesal about Odd Bot Out