Another entry in the "Oh I finished, time to go on reddit and read what the story was" series of games that is Rusty Lake/Cube Escape. Paradox stands out though for being the first to come with a tie in short film as well as being divided into two halves, the first being free and the second paid DLC.
There's a marked effort to get new players on board with the series. The short film is designed to intrigue with lots of confusing but curious imagery, and the game portioning off half of its runtime as a demo backs this idea up. As well as that though, the puzzles seem a fair bit simpler than other Cube Escape games, with much of what little complexity there is withheld for the DLC. Games like Seasons, the Cave or even Samsara Room all feel more layered than Paradox, which isn't inherently good or bad, but it means that it doesn't leave as strong an imprint on my mind as its predecessors.
The story too is relatively uncomplicated, at least compared to the other Rusty Lake games. The Cube Escape sub series tends to focus more on smaller, more surrealistic character studies rather than the expansive, history encompassing plots of Rusty Lake Roots and Paradise, but Paradox feels especially small. A bottle episode taking place somewhere inbetween previous cube escape games, Paradox's plot doesn't add much to the overall mythos or even to Dale's backstory or character, but it's a fairly neat exploration of free will and timey-wimey things.
Weirdly, Paradox's greatest success isn't its puzzles or story (the usual hallmarks of the Rusty Lake games), but how well the live action stuff is integrated. There are some fun secrets and puzzles in the game that require careful watching of the film, and though they don't require much more than taking notes and pausing more often, they're still quite neat. It's also surprisingly satisfying playing through a puzzle game then watching your character inhabit that space in live action in an almost perfect recreation, and the film itself has pretty decent production values.
Some duff puzzles aside (looking at you, sliding tile box), Paradox is a decent entry in the series that is more interesting than great.
There's a marked effort to get new players on board with the series. The short film is designed to intrigue with lots of confusing but curious imagery, and the game portioning off half of its runtime as a demo backs this idea up. As well as that though, the puzzles seem a fair bit simpler than other Cube Escape games, with much of what little complexity there is withheld for the DLC. Games like Seasons, the Cave or even Samsara Room all feel more layered than Paradox, which isn't inherently good or bad, but it means that it doesn't leave as strong an imprint on my mind as its predecessors.
The story too is relatively uncomplicated, at least compared to the other Rusty Lake games. The Cube Escape sub series tends to focus more on smaller, more surrealistic character studies rather than the expansive, history encompassing plots of Rusty Lake Roots and Paradise, but Paradox feels especially small. A bottle episode taking place somewhere inbetween previous cube escape games, Paradox's plot doesn't add much to the overall mythos or even to Dale's backstory or character, but it's a fairly neat exploration of free will and timey-wimey things.
Weirdly, Paradox's greatest success isn't its puzzles or story (the usual hallmarks of the Rusty Lake games), but how well the live action stuff is integrated. There are some fun secrets and puzzles in the game that require careful watching of the film, and though they don't require much more than taking notes and pausing more often, they're still quite neat. It's also surprisingly satisfying playing through a puzzle game then watching your character inhabit that space in live action in an almost perfect recreation, and the film itself has pretty decent production values.
Some duff puzzles aside (looking at you, sliding tile box), Paradox is a decent entry in the series that is more interesting than great.