Apple Arcade review #110: Manifold Garden

Manifold Garden is a beautiful mind-trip that reminds me of Portal. It’s a first-person puzzle game that plays with space and gravity and has lots of crates in it. What Manifold Garden lacks is a narrative, characters, and a sense of place. It’s a very attractive game, and uses its sparse environments and minimalistic art style to full effect, but this also makes it hard to form any emotional attachment to the game world. It’s like being trapped inside a cold and brightly lit modern art museum.

Mechanically, the game is solid. Virtual joysticks work well for first-person controls, especially when they’re simple. Camera and movement are mapped to the left and right sides of the screen, a coloured button changes gravity between surfaces, and you interact with objects in the world by tapping on them. It’s easy to get to grips with and well implemented.

Manifold Garden quickly becomes quite challenging, and the complexity of the game world — both visually and mechanically — means it’s also mentally taxing to play. I’m not sure how far I’ll get, but I intend to keep playing the game for a while…on the Apple TV. The game functions well on the phone and iPad, but it’s also tiring to play with a handheld device and touch controls; a proper controller would help a lot. As would a game world with more colour and variety — but it’s still an interesting and original game that’s worth checking out.

Link: https://apps.apple.com/no/app/manifold-garden/id1468951050