Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is part combat-platformer, part logic-puzzler, and part story driven adventure. That is a lot of different genres all rolled into one. In this game you play as Schrodinger’s Cat, you are not in a box though, and are very obviously alive (at least for now), who has just arrived to the Particle Zoo on a single atom. At the zoo they keep particles on display for people to visit and view, but somehow all the dangerous particles have escaped and are causing complete chaos. Your job is to round them all up and save the day, so to speak. This game mixes action platforming, puzzle elements, and witty dialogue to really keep you entertained.
To achieve your ultimate goal you do not work alone. You team up with little creatures called “Quarks”. Each of the four different Quarks that you interact with has a different power. The up Quark, when used three times, will fly you upwards for a few seconds . The down Quark will break platforms below you, there’s a green Quark that will protect you from dangerous things, and a red quark that will create a platform for you to jump on. When the Quarks are used together, say two up Quarks and a down Quark you create a missile you can throw in any direction. There are fourteen different combos you can make with the Quarks, which is where the puzzle element of the game comes in. Each ability at your disposal is earned by collecting Quarks across the levels and using them. At first I could hardly remember the different combos but they quickly became easy, and if I ever forgot they were readily available at the menu.
When I had lots of Quarks I found the puzzle platforming elements incredibly fun. I would zip around jumping, flying, and blowing stuff up without regard to running out of Quarks. This is a neat system of collecting and comboing different powers together to achieve your goal. In the levels where I had a limited number of Quarks, who do not respawn after they are used, it could be frustrating to accidentally use the wrong Quark and have to restart from the last checkpoint. Trying to conserve specific Quarks only to be one short at the end of a puzzle made me sigh more than a few times. That being said, completing a part you’ve been to a few times and had to reset can be very rewarding. Luckily the controls ported to the PS4 really well too. Each Quark is set to one of the L and R buttons and the HUD shows which ones, so it’s easy to remember which does what.
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“Schrodinger’s Cat mixes action platforming, puzzle elements, and witty dialogue to really keep you entertained.”
The dialogue in this game is well written and voice acted. One thing about the script is that I could tell it was probably funny, but sometimes the physics jokes would go right over my head. I feel like a solid foundation of physics knowledge would make this part even better; but I still enjoyed most of it. The character of Schrodinger’s Cat can be sarcastic at times, and the supporting cast of particles and other things all have some really funny parts. This is one of the best parts of the game, though at times can be tedious and long (who expects long dialogue scenes in a platformer?!). While the dialogue pieces were very good, the quotes that Schrodinger’s Cat would keep repeating got quite old after the first few times you heard them throughout the game. The noises the different Quarks made however still made me laugh even after hearing them many times over. They have funny voices and make a few funny comments, definitely worth paying attention when you collect and use them.
This is a colourful and vibrant game that just looks good. Schrodinger’s Cat has some cool animations when he turns around and jumps, and all the enemies animate and look very good as well. No complaints from me in the visual department. Especially each Quark and the way you can see them interact with the cat. The flying Quarks will heave a little as they are about to let you go which still makes me laugh before I plummet and have to restart again.
All in all Schrodinger’s Cat is a fun little platformer game with some good, if not sometimes irritating, puzzle elements. You come for the cool gameplay and stay for the story. One of my favorite little pieces is that when you die a title goes over the screen that says “Schrodinger’s Cat is dead” and then when you respawn it says “Schrodinger’s Cat is alive”. Considering most of my knowledge of this particular cat comes from “The Big Bang Theory” I’ll say I found that pretty funny. If you’re looking for a good puzzle game with very funny dialogue and a good, if ridiculous, story check out Schrodinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark.
*** Review code supplied by the publisher ***
