Crushed In Time Review – Grab, Stretch, Solve

Crushed In Time Review

Point and click games have this incredible ability to take a single mechanical interface and expand it to an entire world of possibility. Crushed In Time uses a similar design philosophy, wherein one idea becomes a thousand of them. It’s a humbling reminder of humankind’s creative potential. The game also helps drive home my own shortcomings with narrow-banded puzzle adventures. Crushed In Time drove me slightly insane, but I don’t harbor any ill will about this. Rather, I’m encouraged by how clever and cool a puzzle game this turned out to be.

The story is simple enough, on its face. Something has gone wrong in a brand new game starring Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, and it’s up to you to solve the case. ‘You’ in this instance being a disembodied force of chaos that warps the world around these characters in a way that they consistently fail to properly acknowledge. Neat! All you can do is grab things and stretch them, but this single mechanic is enough to create tangible changes in a myriad of cool and clever ways. You can also just use this power to endlessly harass and abuse whoever is onscreen at the time. It’s ineffectual but deeply satisfying.

Stretch To Your Heart’s Content

I can’t speak to the controls at much length (since there’s truly only one), but they’re still implemented with craftmanship and care. You can grab the edges of the screen and warp them or peel them back. Yanking on objects comes with a pleasing set of sound effects, visuals, and a sort of haptic feedback. Once you’ve latched onto a given object, you get a directional arrow that helpfully points out where this thing can be launched or lobbed. Controllers work along with mice, but I don’t recommend them if you can at all help it.

One downside to this limited selection of mechanical interfaces is that you can run out of options pretty quickly. Or at least, it can seem that way to puzzle amateurs such as myself. There’s always a solution buried somewhere in your tiny roster of available moves, but I was often blind to it for an embarrassing amount of time. Yes, there are hints, and no I didn’t hesitate to use them. I’m a self-proclaimed scrub, I’m not above these things. Still, even after using every hint available, there’s still real satisfaction in success. The only problem is the longer you take to figure things out, the more often you have to hear certain canned character lines.

Cram It, Holmes

To be clear, most of the dialogue in Crushed In Time is clever enough. I appreciate this version of Holmes, a myopic moron with no self-reflection who stumbles into solutions in spite of his actions. Seeing Watson get progressively angrier at him throughout the playthrough was also a real delight. But! There are no lines of dialogue so good that I enjoy hearing them thirty times while I obsessively grab and stretch every surface in sight. This happened often enough that I fully gave up on the in-game audio after a while. No one stays sufficiently clever after being stuck in the same tiny room for twenty or so minutes.

Although the dialogue may get stale, the many mechanics buried within this simple grab/stretch system is just about endless. At least, I was continuously shocked at how many new ideas the devs whipped up for Crushed In Time. You’re fixing pipes, burning wood, launching pumpkins, starting cars, changing text, and so much more. It’s honestly wild how much mileage you get out of this central idea. Once in a while I would discover a solution with dread, since executing it with the only mechanic was so daunting. But I was never totally stumped. Somehow, I always made it through, which is a real testament to the system’s expert implementation.

Endless Objects To Assault

I don’t want to spend much time on the plot, but it’s well-crafted and full of clever twists. Much better to encounter these things yourself, you see. The premise is already extremely meta, and Crushed In Time easily lands this plane. The game is crammed with little jokes and references to this devious idea, so you’re rewarded for being patient and observant.

Limitations are often a boon for creativity. By fencing yourself in with a single mechanic, a forest of possibilities opens up to you. A simple grab-and-stretch system can be used for everything from simple harassment to rudimentary programming. Sure, sometimes you get terribly stuck, slowly driven mad by an endless loop of three or four canned lines of dialogue. But you’re also free to create a complex plot and a cast of charming characters. Crushed In Time is a simple point-and-click adventure pushed to its limits. While some pain is involved, there are also a lot of cool ideas born in this far-flung space. If you’re looking for a puzzle adventure with a full roster of fascinating twists, Crushed In Time might be just what you need.

***A Steam key was provided by the publisher***