Reviews:
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Undeniably fascinating visually, reky is a unique puzzler, but fumbles a bit in terms of clarity and controls
Games with aesthetics at the level of reky are sometimes tough to put a finger on in terms of scoring, because unless every aspect of the gameplay matches up to the ambition of its looks you’ll tend to see a dividing line of opinion tied to how the game looks. There’s no doubt that reky falls into this trap, with stages that often look like optical illusions, and have undeniable appeal, but that’s matched with sometimes frustratingly inconsistent controls and mechanics that can make finding solutions a more arduous process than it should be at times. Early on everything tends to click well, but that does give you a false sense of security. As the complexity increases, and you’re increasingly in situations where only a subset of elements will need to be changed or moved to solve the puzzle, things get a bit more messy. My one major gripe with this is that there only appears to be one intended solution, which I suppose makes sense since it tracks how many moves you make, but if the game were less mechanically rigid there could undoubtedly be other possible solutions. That’s where the frustration hits a bit, where you can see a viable solution you can’t even pursue because the controls outright won’t cooperate at times until you get onto the proper path. If you don’t mind that, and love the game’s unique look, it can be enjoyable, it just feels far more linear than it should be in places.
Justin Nation, Score:Good [7.6]