Review: MIND PORTAL

Release Date: January 12th, 2018
Developer: Daniil Titner
Publisher: Daniil Titner
Version Reviewed: PC
Copy Purchased

There's a saying in certain circles that you can make a good movie out of anything, but to do it sometimes you have to rip out the source material's guts.  The intent of that saying is, I feel, quite clear in its central focus - highlighting how some projects have to work harder than others to hammer competency out of flawed material - but I think the sentiment can also apply to other mediums, like gaming.

Take, for example, the first-person platformer, a sub-genre which exists primarily as an extension of the first-person shooter genre being so prevalent for sooooo long.  Make no mistake, I like works like Mirror's Edge (or, say, Jumping Flash) for at least trying to offer something different from the gun-toting norm, but the execution of such works tends to leave a lot to be desired (no matter how much time, energy and money is thrown at the damn things).

And yet, I've seen a lot of games in recent years crop up, trying their hand at improving the reputation of "FPPs".  Thus enters Mind Portal, a game which takes cues from exploration-minded first-person titles like Gone Home or Dear Esther, while slyly including a touch of platforming and a whole heap of maze puzzles for good measure.

Quite an admirable effort... that I wish resulted in a remarkable experience, as opposed to a muddled mess of a project.

Mind Portal opts to use a slightly oblique opening monologue in order to set up its premise: you are some person (no more defined than that) who has fallen into a dreamscape overseen by a mysterious entity.  Said dreamscape takes the form of loosely-connected themed realms which increasingly appear detached from any semblance of reality... and which are tied together by shimmering portals, which double as the means of accessing the game's various mazes.

It soon becomes clear, after some exploration and guesswork, that the only chance for escape is to enter each maze in succession and complete them.  Easier said than done, since the mazes also happen to be filled with hazards and small puzzles in need of solving.

If all of that sounds thinly-drawn and rather lacking in distinctive details or greater depth, that's the game in a nutshell.  Conceptually the game is on to something with its quietly abstract usage of fantasy and medieval imagery, giving a sense that what we're seeing is meant to be mysterious and intriguing.  However, spend more than a few minutes in the world(s) of Mind Portal and it becomes clear precisely how shallow each realm on display actually is.

There's no deeper interaction with the handful of locales here, no clues to its origin or the intent behind its construction.  I spent a few hours with the game, and I cannot for the life of me explain why or how any of this came to be (nor did I particularly care).  Given that half of your time is spent wandering around these big open spaces in first-person, it kind of matters that the audience at least connects with the setting on some basic emotional level.  Alas...

The other half of Mind Portal lies in its collection of top-down maze puzzles, and it's here where the game's most pressing issue becomes apparent: it's at once infuriating, repetitive and (eventually) quite dull.  These mazes rely on primary colours to denote "hazard/collectable/player avatar", which is functional but lacks flair and feels utterly rote.  More substantively as issues go, the controls utilize a four-direction system which truly does not cooperate with the game's precision-oriented puzzle design; expect to go flying off the edge of maps or into death-traps on a regular basis.

To add to the sense of disappointment I'd begun to feel, the game never truly expands upon the handful of hazard and maze arrangement concepts that are introduced early on.  Very rarely did a level surprise me with a subversion of expectations... and that usually came about because of odd physics or uncertain level objectives.  More often, players will experience some minute variation on "find yellow object, avoid red obstacle, head to teleport pad" and not much else.

Now I'd be remiss if I didn't offer a tad bit of praise to the first-person explorative segments of the game, for all the good that does.  The developer dabbles in a fair bit of well-worn imagery - you begin on an island with a lighthouse, after all - but also knows to tease out more intriguing settings over the course of this (astoundingly short) game.  Locations like a war-torn grassy field experienced from ant-size proportions and a "cute" version of [Insert Undead Realm of Choice Here] are made especially compelling by the decision to render everything as low-polygon vistas.

Unfortunately, little artistic touches like that are bogged down by the rest of the game being underwhelming and uninspired.  Mind Portal also appears to have been designed without regard for the possibility of inescapable fuck-ups: there came a time when, during a wandering run through one map, I became trapped in one section and incapable of jumping to safety.  The autosaving system being as fickle as it is, and with no manual save options, it soon became clear that this point would mark the unceremonious end of my playthough (though upon investigation, I would learn I was one maze away from reaching the intended conclusion).

I can't be bothered to replay the damn thing and see what lies beyond the climax.  Mind Portal is beautifully constructed in some regards, but any good will earned was worn down by regrettable puzzle design, unambitious production values and some of the worst in minimalistic narrative direction I've seen in a while.  Don't give this game your time.