E3 2012: Quantum Conundrum Hands-On

Are you ready for Portal 3? If you are, you’re in for a wait, as it hasn’t been announced yet. However, if you’re not the patient type, then Quantum Conundrum might just be the fix you need to hold you over.

Designed by Kim Swift, former project lead on Portal, Quantum Conundrum is another quirky puzzle platformer being developed Airtight Games for Square Enix. However, it’s not a straight clone. In fact it’s quite different, and this is immediately evidenced by the art style. Unlike the largely pristine labs of Portal, Quantum Conundrum takes place in a colorful cartoonlike world. However, there is some slight similarity in that it is heavy on the humor and the physics based puzzles.

Even so, the humor is different. Again, it’s lighter in nature, to fit the brighter cartoony world. Still, it’s well written and entertaining. The plot follows you waking up in a mansion and being lead around by Professor Fitz Quadwrangle, voiced by John DeLancie. From there things get interesting.

The game moves on to walking you through rooms and introducing you to physics based puzzles- Except there are no Portals to be found here. Instead, you have the ability to alter the physical properties of the world by “shifting dimensions”. You can do this to slow down time, make everything lighter, or make everything heavier and change the direction of gravity. The puzzles are well thought out and the possibilities are intriguing. The game controls well and was a blast to play. Still, you don’t have to take my word on it solely, check out the footage we captured below and judge for yourselves.