Imbroglio Reviews

fun and smart puzzle game which is has some cool challenges but it was short actually! good for who wants to pass some time https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2146292283

A bit rough around the edges, has some nice ideas, a good sokoban game overall! Would recommend only to people that really enjoys puzzle games though

While the last 3 areas of the game have some interesting puzzles, the areas before that are kind of dull because they don't offer anything new to the player. And even in the areas that are more interesting, the puzzles are still often repetitive. It's also somewhat unpolished, with some design flaws(no speeding up when holding undo button, no visual distinction between active and inactive blue block, pressing "r" more than once keeps restarting you earlier and earlier, deleting your progress). Overall, it has some appeal, but not really worthwhile.

Nice puzzle game. Some pretty tricky levels. If you're into puzzles definitely worth a try.

Still playing, but I quite like this. EDIT: I finished the game. The puzzles, overall, were pretty inventive and challenging, especially when height becomes a factor and the game makes proper use of its 3D perspective.

Why I can't move at the beginning???? The optimizing is so bad. All is foggy and these can't turn into clear status, this seems a slow world and every movement/controlling is very very very slow then it still keep this status although I close sync. I can't play anything although the art in the game is good. Goodbye.

[b]imbroglio[/b] is your garden variety 3d sokoban with stylish presentation, pleasant music and a few less traditional mechanics. there are [b]7 big levels (worlds) with multiple puzzles each[/b], adding up to about 40, with the goal of grabbing keys by pushing special blocks onto pressure plates to open gates. puzzles are connected by paths and can usually be done in any order within a location, so puzzle select, as tedious as it is, is a thing, but [b]already finished areas can't be replayed[/b], start over from the very beginning, sucker. the only progress indicator is the number of remaining keys in the current place, no level numbers anywhere. [b]pushing and pulling[/b] are both possible, supposedly making things less stressful and tedious, but worry not, there's plenty of both on offer. movement speed is surprisingly fast but [b]controls are way too sensitive, to the point of being frustrating[/b]. initially not so much, but world 3 introduces climbable boxes and falling to your death from higher places, and world 4 adds lethal traps. [b]undo is available and works from a fail state[/b] but it's still not a pleasant experience. later on there are falling blocks and ones that push up whatever is put on them. [b]non-rebindable keyboard and gamepad movement with alternatives[/b] (wasd and arrows), mouse works in the menus. hold space to grab, 'z' is undo, 'q' and 'e' rotate the camera in certain situations, 'r' is reset. unfortunately, [b]rotating the view often doesn't help much[/b] and the incessant sandstorm in world 5 hinders visibility even more. what's worse, [b]reset can scrap the previous puzzle if you're not careful[/b] and it completely resets the final world every time. before that, instead of putting you back to the beginning of the current area, [b]it drops you at the end of the previous puzzle, gotta go all the way back to the one just restarted[/b]. this is why a basic level select screen is absolutely necessary. some pre-release playtesting also helps, or at the very least post-release patching up, none of which applied here, outside of a few minor fixes. settings, available while playing because there's no main menu either, are windowed mode and resolutions, only a single volume slider, brightness, languages, v-sync, fxaa and screen space reflection toggles. [b]credits are unskippable[/b], once clicked, gotta sit through the whole thing. another gripe is esc not closing the pause menu, only brings it up. and while there's very little text, only the menu and brief tutorial pop-ups, they still managed to include at least one typo. it would be okay overall, a bit on the short side (probably around 4 hours, I gave up around halfway), but [b]without level select and potential progress loss and other annoyances due to problematic controls, it's not something to recommend[/b].

Sub-par camera? Check. Fiddly controls? Check. Glitchy reset and undo buttons? Check. Buy Pushmo or English Country Tune instead.

[i]"Imbroglio: an intricate entanglement".[/i] I don't usually play this kind of puzzle games. I am more used to 1st person puzzlers, but the beautiful graphics and soundtrack as well as all the positive reviews incited me to try out this game. And I don't regret it. Solving the game puzzles was actually really fun. [b]Gameplay[/b] We play as some shade character that can push and pull some cubes around. The game being in 3D, the shade can also move up and down, but only one vertical tile at a time, otherwise it can fall to its death. We use the WASD keys to move, the space key to grab a cube, the Q and E to rotate the map and the Z key to cancel the last move. There is also a reset R key, but I do not recommend using that one as it is currently glitchy. [b]Puzzles[/b] The definition above is a very good description of what kind of puzzle game Imbroglio is: different sets of puzzles tangled together. And it was done ingeniously. The game has 7 different levels or maps, each introducing a new mechanic into the game. Solving a puzzle requires to figure out how to position the different cubes at our disposal to bring some "key-cubes" on top of "lock-tiles" which will then unlock a door to get a key and/or move to the next puzzle area. Getting a certain number of keys unlocks a portal to the next level. But things are not always that simple, we have to think with every steps in mind: reaching the key-cube, bringing it to a lock-tile, and walking to the unlocked door. Also, for a few puzzles, finding and reaching the next puzzle area was a bit tricky. The difficulty gradually increases as we play, but I found that the before last level had the trickiest map of puzzles to solve. [b]Needs for improvement / Glitches[/b] - The reset R key is supposed to reset the current puzzle, but, if used more then once in a puzzle (after doing a few moves in between), it will also reset the previously solved puzzles that must then be redone... It is better to use the Z key instead even if it takes a bit longer to rewind. - I wished the game had an option to zoom-out to see more of the map as it was not always clear where the next unsolved puzzle area was. - I found the movements keys too sensitive. Too many times, I lost a cube or my shade died because it went one tile too far. I admit that the Z key was my best friend while playing. - I also met some strange glitch while trying to use the portal to level 6. Standing directly on it did not work. Only by very delicately pressing the down movement key could I trigger it. If you can look past those aspects (and hopefully they will be improved in the future), I definitely recommend playing Imbroglio if you like puzzle games. The puzzles are tricky, and the visuals and soundtrack are just stunning. It also made me realize that I should try out more this type of games in the future...

I am not a big fan of sokoban-style puzzles because most of the time i simply find them tedious. Imbroglio is a much appreciated exception. Around every five to ten puzzles a new mechanic is introduced which allows for sufficient variety. Furthermore, I found that the layout of each puzzle was very well readable in terms of which intermediate goals are logically required to reach the end goal. Which is not to say that the puzzles are easy. Especially towards the end of the game difficulty ramps up and keeps the puzzles interesting. It took me 4.2 hours to finish the game which means about six minutes per puzzle. Finally, I really enjoyed the visuals and the music of the game. For me these two provided the foundation to really immerse myself in the well-crafted puzzles. The only two things I found that could be improved are [list] [*]the controls (in my opinion they are too sensitive and often caused me to make moves that I didn't want to make) [*]the view adjustment (in two, maybe three cases I was unable to get an entirely good view af all areas of a puzzle) [/list] But these were minor insufficiencies. So I'd say that Imbroglio is a must-have for every fan of sokoban-style puzzle. If you're simply into pure logical puzzles (like I am) I strongly recommend this title. For everyone else: why are you still reading? ;)