Partial Control Reviews

awesome concept, cool theme, I'm loving it!

A unique tactical puzzle game. Many funny moments when unpredicted behaviors happen. Highly recommended.

Partial control is a weird yet fascinating indie game, in which you play as a character who can only decide on their move in very specific moments (hence the name). In this review I want to address a few specific things about the game, I might make a more full review later on or not. [b]Gameplay[/b] In Partial Control, each room is a puzzle. But, not necessarily a puzzle in the traditional sense, where there's a clear cut solution- but rather... some sort of a strange, adaptive puzzle, where you come in with an assumption and might have to change your decisions according to what happens, or if you end up failing and trying again. I think this form of freeform puzzles can be alluring and interesting. However, it does have some shortcomings in that you can get "stuck" (with no solution anywhere in sight or the number of tries you have in the post-campaign mode). This is not an issue that is exclusive to this game, however, it's also something you can see with games like Into the Breach for example (though it's less bad here imo). Additionally sometimes it's tough to be sure what something would do (do I want to make the missile large? or not? etc.) and what the result would be, since you can only truly predict the future after you've seen it for yourself. For what it counts, though, I enjoyed playing this weird and unique experience. [b]Visuals[/b] The visuals can be a bit rough around the edges, for example, the UI doesn't look amazing- but the gameplay visuals are also clear enough that you generally know exactly what's going on and that's a boon in an of itself with this sort of game. If you're playing indie games, you're not expecting something that looks incredible but rather stylized. I'm not sure to which extent I can say this is stylized or pretty, but it does have its own personality and charm, even with the sometimes clunky looking animations. [b]Themes[/b] Partial Control feels like a mashup between "true" hard sci-fi, as well as philosophical ideas like those of Deleuze & Guattari. If you're familiar with those, you'll see it during the campaign. Deleuze & Guattari are true accelerationists, and in their book "Anti Edipus", they try to challenge the view of Sigmund Frued who saw everything as part of the Edipal triangle of father, mother and son, and instead propose the idea that everything in the world is a machine (/desiring machines). This is one of the strongest elements of the game for me since I thought the way the developer portrayed it was very interesting. [b]So do I recommend this game?[/b] Yes, if you're into weird and interesting indie games... get it! You could have a good time messing around and trying to kill cyborgs, jumping from decision to decision, or enjoying the weird and interesting story. Otherwise, this is not for you! If you're looking for a more standard game, in regards to visuals, themes, gameplay, then skip over this strange little gem, since this one is all about weirdness!! And if you're not into weirdness, you ain't gonna dig it.

Partial control was a surprisingly rich and refreshing experience. It's a tactical semi-turn based game where the goal is to keep your cyborg alive. The action in the game happens in real time, but pauses at specific moments to let you make limited modifications to the field, yourself and the enemy cyborgs. The graphics in this game have a simplistic cyberspace feeling to them which works well to give the game it's unique atmosphere but is otherwise unremarkable. Where this game really shines is in its gameplay. If you've played many tactical games, you will know that the solutions can sometimes feel a little bit scripted, you are expected to do certain things a certain way to beat each level. This was absolutely not the case for this game. It requires you to use a combination of chess-like prediction and creative problem solving which I don't think I've ever encountered in a game before this one. Every level can be tackled in many different ways while still remaining surprisingly challenging. The game has a large tactical depth to it, with many unique items, weapons and traps which can take some time to understand, and even more time to master. I'm 23 hours in and am still discovering new ways to use the simplest items. An example of one of my proudest moments: I used my last energy point to move a wall in such a way that it would block an incoming bullet while simultaneously forcing my cyborg to take a different path to it's target, avoiding a trap that would otherwise have killed me. While all the points above apply to the campaign, the "Chaotic Universe" mode takes it to the next level, both in terms of strategy as well as challenge. I have yet to beat the first chaotic universe but am thoroughly enjoying the process. I would however recommend doing the campaign first to familiarise yourself with the game mechanics. Story-wise, this game falls in the "acceptable" category. The story took some time to really get started and didn't have much impact on the actual gameplay, it felt more like something separate from the actual game that you discover as you progress through the levels. Nevertheless it was an enjoyable addition. All in all I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of the tactical genre. Pros: - Huge amount of content: 81 campaign levels + 25 x 5 chaotic universe levels. - Unique gameplay. - Tactical masterpiece. Cons: - Animations can be a little bit wonky at times. - Some game mechanics take some time to understand. - The story only really starts at about level 30.

The kind of a game I like to have in my collection for when I want something simple and unchallenging on an intellectual level. The gaming equivalent of a beer. Recco.

I am totally in love with this game. Part puzzle, part turn-based. There is a lot of strategy involved to win every battle. Keep your robot alive by using items and eliminate the other robots. Try the free demo. You will not regret this (if you are into these kind of games). I believe there is even an endless mode.

[b] IT´S LIKE A TOP DOWN PUZZLE-ORIENTED SUPPER HOT [/b] This is an insanely interesting idea, it´s like a turn based combat puzzle game, and it lives or dies by it´s gameplay and game design, so let´s talk about it: You are a robot in a room with other robots that want to murder you (and each other) with the various devices and weapons lying around. To make things worse, you don´t have complete control over your character and can only give it one order at a time and have to wait until it completes it or someone else does something that forces you to change your plans. Other than that you can either hack the enemies brain for a short stun or move some things around, but these cost "energy" which is very limited. This has some interesting gameplay implications, you can´t just try to grab the nearest weapon and go to town, you are forced to consider the possibilities, realize what your enemies are going to grab, who they are targeting, and make a plan with that information, all that without even giving the first order, and that is great. It kinda feels like a top down superhot, but without an action component. The story is given bit by bit with short videos and images, it´s nothing to write home about, neither are the music or graphics, these last ones being especially ugly and solely functional, even so it works for me, but if you cannot look past these things then this game might not be for you. If you can look past them, well... I love this game, so you might too.