WhatPortaldid for portals, whatBraidwill do for time manipulation,Polaritydoes for magnetism. A free, downloadable, totally awesome puzzle-platformer,Polarityis all about using different types of magnetism to make it through the game.
The player is equipped with a dual-magnetism suit: at the press of a button, the player can turn blue and become attracted to orange items while repelling blue ones, or turn orange and have the opposite happen. Basically, you’ve gotta jump and magnetize your way through four levels full of dangerous platforming and wonderfully clever puzzles.
If it sounds a little weird, it’s because I’m awful at writing description: justdownload the gameand enjoy it. It’s short, it’s fun, and you’ll never look at magnetism the same way again.
Granted, I dunno how you looked at magnetismbefore, but…well, just download it. Or, hit the jump for a further explanation of the game mechanics.
So, as I said before the jump, your character’s suit has two settings: blue, and orange. When you turn your suit blue, you attract to orange objects and pieces of the scenery, but you repel from blue objects and scenery. This means that, while blue, you can walk up orange walls but use your similar polarity to literally float over blue structures. And vice-versa when you’re wearing the orange suit.
So, imagine there’s an electrified blue stretch of floor, far too wide to jump across. Rather than trying to make a leap you could not possibly land, you’re meant to switch to your blue suit and simply repel yourself from the blue, electrified floor as you float across the screen.
Or, let’s say you’re below a hollow compartment with no doors or way in, just a big button and a blue ball. Since you need to hit the switch on your own, but you can’t actually get to the switch, you just need to either turn orange and attract the ball to you as you slowly move in the direction of the switch above you, or you can turn blue and sort ofpushthe ball toward the switch using the opposing magnetism.
IsanythingI’m saying making any sense? Just download the game and try it out, you’ll get a grip on the mechanics almost immediately. Once you get the ability to increase the intensity of your suit’s magnetism, you can start launching yourself into the air off similarly-colored magnets.
It’s pretty awesome.
Essentially, though, as boring as “a magnet-based platformer” might sound,Polarityis really quite neat. Games likePolarity, which basically exist to explore and simulate the logistics of a single mechanic, can be really goddamned fun. These sorts of games are mainly about asking, “what if we could dothis” in regards to their mechanic; if we could wear magnetized suits, what movement possibilities would arise from that? If we could put portals in solid objects, or slow down time with the press of a button, how would that affect our abilities, and what puzzles could arise from that?
As a result of this design philosophy, games likePortalorPolarityare much more interesting. They’re otherwise very accessible, save for the exploration of their central gameplay mechanic; heck, there’s not even any permanent death inPolarity, so the player is free to experiment and learn about the use of the magnetism. These games are about being interesting and immersive rather than necessarily being balls-out challenging (neitherPolarity,Portal,Fez,norBraidhave any puzzles which we might define as truly, mind-numbingly difficult).
To be honest, I’ve sort of lost track of what I was trying to say. In summation:
-Games revolving around single gameplay mechanics are cool.
-Indie games do this far more frequently, and often more effectively than mainstream titles.
–Polarityis fun, and wortha download.
