Parallel Experiment
Last updated: 2025-06-15
- Excellent and well-designed puzzle experiences.
- Compelling story with expansive narrative.
- Great co-op gameplay is a focus.
- Appealing art style and voice-acting.
- Slow start and artificially inflated length.
- Game is plagued by technical issues.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 86% · Negative 14%. Score: 14 / 100
Positives:
- The puzzles are a major strength, praised for their clever design, balanced difficulty, and integration with the narrative. Players found them logical, engaging, and satisfying to solve, especially in co-op. The game avoids tedious or obscure puzzle design, providing ample guidance and 'Aha' moments.
- The game features an engaging and well-crafted story, often exceeding expectations and building upon previous installments. Reviewers appreciated the narrative depth, unexpected twists, and the way the story is integrated with the gameplay. The presentation and narrative are a step up from previous titles.
- The game is designed around cooperative play, emphasizing communication and teamwork between players. The dialogue mechanic and the need to describe the game to a friend enhances the co-op experience. This creates a fun and engaging social experience.
- The game's visual presentation, particularly the comic book art style, is a highlight. The art style and voice acting enhance the overall experience and the charisma of the characters. The stylish cutscenes and special color palette contribute to the game's unique appeal.
- The game includes enjoyable mini-games, often unlocked by collecting tokens. These mini-games, such as darts and billiards, add a fun and engaging diversion to the main gameplay loop. The pub mini-games were a nice touch.
Negatives:
- Numerous players report severe technical issues that render the game unplayable. These include frequent crashes, black screens, connection errors, and failures to load assets or connect to servers. The prevalence and severity of these issues significantly detract from the player experience, with some reviewers requesting refunds.
- Some reviewers felt that the game had a slow start and that the length was artificially inflated due to poorly written dialogues. One reviewer also mentioned that the game's length was shorter than the initially stated 10 hours, clocking in at 4.8 hours.
- Reviewers found the puzzles to be inconsistent in quality, with some being poorly designed, unclear, or devolving into simple button presses. One reviewer specifically mentioned a broken maze level. These issues detract from the puzzle-solving experience, which is a core element of the game.
- The game contains excessive dialogue that artificially extends playtime. This overabundance of dialogue detracts from the gameplay experience.
- The game's controls are not optimized, and the frame rate is capped at 60fps. These issues detract from the overall gameplay experience.
Gameplay:
- The game incorporates a variety of puzzles and mini-games, including scavenger hunts, platforming challenges, and darts, to diversify the gameplay experience and keep players engaged.
- The game is designed as a cooperative puzzle experience for two players, emphasizing communication, perception, and logical thinking to solve challenges across parallel realities.
- The game's reliance on sound cues and precise timing may pose difficulties for players with hearing impairments or those who struggle with auditory perception.
- The game features a linear plot, which provides a straightforward and easily followed narrative experience for the player.
Performance:
- The game exhibits good stability and performance on different platforms, including Steam Deck and Macbook. Players have reported smooth gameplay experiences, indicating effective optimization.
- Some players are encountering a critical issue where the game freezes on a black screen, requiring a hard restart of their system. This is a severe problem that disrupts gameplay and can potentially lead to data loss.
Recommendations:
- The game is highly recommended, especially for fans of co-op puzzle games and escape rooms. Reviewers praise its creativity, value for money, and the unique experience it offers, often exceeding expectations. Many express eagerness for future installments and consider it among the best in its genre.
- The game requires effective communication and collaboration with a partner to fully enjoy the experience. Players need to trust each other and strategize together to solve the puzzles successfully. A reliable co-op partner is essential for a positive gameplay experience.
- Many reviewers express excitement and anticipation for future games from the developers. They are eager to see what new stories and puzzles the studio will create next, indicating a strong positive impression and a desire for more content.
- The reviewer advises against purchasing the game until a specific glitch is resolved in a future update. This suggests a potentially significant issue that impacts the gameplay experience, warranting caution until a fix is implemented.
- The reviewer notes a scarcity of games in this particular genre. This suggests that the game fills a niche and offers a unique experience that is not commonly found in the gaming market.
Miscellaneous:
- Players enjoy interacting with and provoking other characters in the game. This suggests that the game provides engaging ways to interact with other characters, making the experience more dynamic and enjoyable.
- Optional side challenges diversify gameplay and reward player exploration. These challenges encourage players to pay attention to the game world and offer alternative activities beyond the main storyline.
- The game builds upon a pre-existing narrative from earlier installments. This context is important for players who are invested in the series' lore and character development, as it provides a continuation of familiar storylines.
- A minor detail, such as a character's last name, felt too obvious or unsubtle to the reviewer. This suggests a potential lack of subtlety in certain aspects of the game's writing or character development.
