The Cube

pro

The Cube is based on the British show by the same name, in which a contestant is put inside a 4x4x4 cube and presented with a whole lot of challenges. The game recreates the studio complete with FMV's that explain the rules to each of them. Some of the challenges are interesting.

con

As a game, The Cube is offensive in a multitude of ways. First of all it resembles what I imagine an alpha version of Buzz looked like on the PS2. The lifeless silhouettes of the audience are placed around the centerpiece, a cube that in no way feels as dramatic and claustrophobic as originally intended. A huge stock photo icon that you control the game with does it best to pull you right out of the experience.

con

The second offense is the complete lack of feedback needed to play the game. A lot of the challenges are physics based and rely on giving the exact amount of force to reach your goal. One task have you throw the ball at the floor at an angle so it bounces up and breaks a glass. Another will have you roll a ball with such precision that it stops within a certain area. A third example is where you're supposed to throw the ball on to a pillar after which it will bounce off another pillar before hitting a bucket at the end. To achieve this you pull the stick backwards and then push it forwards with the amount of force you wish to apply. When you pull and push the stick there is nothing that tells you how fast or hard you're performing an action. You can do a test run but it's damn near impossible to get a feel for it. Not only does this make almost every challenge feel cold and mechanical, but you will often see the ball (or other items) stop at the exact same spot over and over again because the force provided is clearly set up in segments. It's just that the right segment is impossible to hit most of the time.

con

The Cube isn't a complicated or deep game by any stretch of the imagination, which makes you think that having properly working core mechanics would be the least of its problems. The aforementioned issue with force segmentation is one, but the game becomes wildly unpredictable once you start completing tasks by actually missing your goal.

con

It's hard to recommend this game to anyone, including fans of the show. Even the expert challenges which are just normal challenges with a smaller winning areas provides little to no comfort. I'm pretty sure the feeling I got playing this is just what it's like to be dead inside.