From the outside, Figment looks like the sort of game I’d really want to play (and, of course, is why I did). Interesting graphics style, the promise of puzzles, some weird story about being in a person’s subconscious, great voice acting. All of those are true. But, it’s just so, so dull and tedious.
The main issue is the puzzles are often of a disguised Sokoban nature. You have to flip a switch to activate a thing, but you have to do another thing first, then you have to unflick it and move and then do another thing then go all the way back to the start and flick it again before you can access something. In a game like Zelda, these are fun. Here, it’s just slow and annoying. There’s also less disguised Sokoban type puzzles, with actual things to push and pull in the right order. Just boring. There’s an awful lot of the same thing as well – you always need a battery or a handle, it’s always the other side of a puzzle, it’s always needed to get to the next bit. For a game literally set in an imagination, there’s not much on show in terms of item use variety.
Then there’s the combat. It’s not difficult, it’s just clumsy, imprecise and doesn’t really seem to fit with the rest of the game. You’re often in a confined space when attacked, and you don’t have many moves and move too slowly to effectively dodge and counter. I also found the perspective sometimes screwed up my depth perception.
It isn’t all bad. The graphics are lovely and the voices and range of accents and silly comments are to be applauded. I also enjoyed it enough to play to the end and it did improve when you get to the “steampunk robot train” bits later on, it was just somewhat disappointing and uninteresting for much of the rest.
