FRACTER Reviews

the game is very glitchy. get ready to restart some levels several times

Amazing game. Made flawlessly and is really symbolic of the human mind

A very different and enjoyable puzzle game. I liked the ambiance, found it very relaxing.

A nice little atmospheric puzzle game :) took me about 2 hours to finish (with all but 2 extras). The puzzles aren't too hard, imo they were a good balance of keeping the flow of the game (not frustrating) but still making you think. The game teaches you how everything works but it won't hold your hand. I also liked the dark art style. Enemies are a bit scary but you're not totally helpless. Sounds are as minimalistic as the rest of the style but create a nice atmosphere. The game crashed on me once, but I didn't lose any progress thanks to the auto save system. Also I think the achievements are a bit broken, I received one I didn't deserve and a couple I thought I deserved weren't given.

Sometimes looks can be deceiving. Not this time, though. What you see here is pretty much what you get: a simple little game with ok puzzles and a great aesthetic. The puzzles are mostly of the move-platforms-to-create-paths and reflect-light-beams-with-mirrors varieties. Once in a while you push a block around or evade a monster. So not exactly revolutionary, to say the least. As for the looks, it's hard to miss with black and white, huh? A zillion film students can't be wrong. To the extent that artsy monochrome has become a cliche, it's because it works. It lets you play around with light and shadow in an elemental way that creates a dramatic impact all on its own. Familiar things suddenly stand out in sharper relief, and the commonplace takes on an otherworldly aspect that catches your eye in fresh ways. This style leads you to believe they're saying something deep here, and you do get the sense that they want us to look beneath the surface. In fact, they pretty much say so in the store description; but if there's something there besides the obvious, I'm not seeing it. Ok, darkness = bad; light = good. I'm with you so far. Anyway, I've got to go with the side that doesn't kill me and make me reload every time I run into it. You could extrapolate that Manichaean principle as far as you want, I guess, to yourself, the universe and everything in between; but all it really amounts to is another Rorschach test, like Burning Daylight except with puzzles that break up the pace and the occasional death. They provide a few symbolic raw materials, but for their part don't use them to say anything meaningful. Well, the white triangle perpetually leading you out of darkness is pretty suggestive. Otherwise, it's a very static experience. Sure, the puzzles get more complex as you go along, but there's no real progression to the levels, character or atmosphere--like you see in Limbo or RiME or NaissanceE, for example--to make it scary, or sad, or even especially awe-inspiring on a gut level. It looks neat, and that's about it. They say it's a personal journey, but all I learned about myself is that I'm not very stealthy, which I already knew. You can find more indie game reviews at [url=https://oddlittlegames.com] oddlittlegames.com [/url] or visit my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/34514756/] curator page. [/url] Thanks, and enjoy!

Creepy but not scary! Fracter is the right level of challenging, without being frustrating. It is the best kind of weird, and reminded me a fair bit of Limbo (which kicks ass as much as this does).

[b]FRACTER[/b] is a [b]little atmospheric [i]puzzler[/i][/b], set in a [b]ghost-like, colorless world[/b], that utilizes [b]dynamic lighting[/b] as a thematic medium to explore the [b]idea of the [i]self[/i][/b] - albeit said premise [i]might[/i] be lost amidst [b][i]unnecessarily[/i] obscure wording[/b]. Coincidentally, all [b]puzzles[/b] intently play into this design choice, with most of them being realized by [b]light-emitting devices[/b]; unfortunately, although they evolve [i]slightly[/i] as you clear out levels, most are [b][i]too[/i] plain[/b] to incite a challenge. [b]FRACTER[/b]’s major slip, however, is the [b]implementation of sections in which stealth is required[/b], which prompts a [b]stark disconnection[/b] from the rest of the gameplay, and is only worsened by the [b]character’s lousy movement[/b]. And so, stripped off its [b]light-and-shadow aesthetic[/b] and its [b]thematic execution[/b], [b]FRACTER[/b] as a [i]puzzler[/i] is sadly [i]meh[/i].

At first glance I thought it was going to be a charming puzzle game because I like puzzle games and I enjoy playing them very much. But after 4 levels or so I noticed a common trend where you're just solving endless pointless puzzles and getting attacked by creepy crawlies. I was hoping the game would have a story-isk charm to it but it didn't. You also can't save up to where you played so if you actually messed up (like I did) you had to start the whole god damn level again. I was looking for a story driven meaningful puzzle but all i got was repetitive game play. Here's my game play until I gave up: 00:00 - 2:55:00 Fracter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXnTNgROrJg my rant starts at 2:49:00 - 2:55:00

A full playthrough runs a bit on the short side but the presentation is bold with lots of atmosphere, puzzles are simple but fun enough to hold interest, a minimalist take on story telling and the controls are easy to use. Overall a quality port and good experience for the price of entry.

FRACTER is an isometric, light-based puzzle game that also requires some stealth to avoid instant death by patrolling shades. It sets a mysterious mood with its grayscale color scheme and minimal lighting within overwhelming darkness: the only sources of light are relevant puzzle elements and a small wisp hovering above you. This provides just enough visibility to keep you on edge when sneaking around shades, who will get down on all fours and charge like rabid dogs if they see you, killing you instantly and respawning you at the last checkpoint unless you manage to first destroy them with light. Including this element of tension was the right decision over puzzles alone, and likely saved FRACTER from being forgettable like so many other bite-sized puzzle games. Level and puzzle design are solid and eventually challenging enough; they predominantly consist of directing pillars of light from their sources to target receptacles—essentially laser puzzles—but also include pushing cubes into gaps and across manually controlled elevation changes. Later on, cubes and other puzzle elements are atop platforms you can rotate, adding to complexity. FRACTER contains seven levels of various sizes and will take two to three hours to complete if you search for all the semi-hidden shades of light, which are basically fractured copies of your character. There's also a challenging achievement or two, such as never dying to a shade throughout the game. The purpose of your journey is abstract and simplistic, revealed to you as quatrains at the beginning of each level; the developers were a bit hyperbolic with some of their descriptions on the product page, but FRACTER is definitely worth a few bucks for anyone who’s a fan of its dark aesthetic or more casual puzzle games.