Game Review: Schrödinger’s Cat And The Raiders Of The Lost Quark

I first came across this game in a Hey Ash, Whatcha Playin’? (HAWP) video, which you can check out here if you’re interested, and I strongly suggest you do because HAWP are awesome, but anyway enough unrelated promotion, when I saw the video on their channel I was immediately taken in by the quirky design, the fun science based universe that it takes place in and so I decided I was going to get it for myself. I’ll admit it took a while but I eventually got myself a copy and it was totally worth it.

First before the actual review, some background information, Schrödinger’s Cat And The Raiders Of The Lost Quark was released on the 23rd September 2014  by publisher Team17, known for amongst other titles the Worms franchise and developer Italic Pig, a Northern Ireland based games developer. Schrödinger’s Cat And The Raiders Of The Lost Quark is available on Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and you can purchase it on Steam, which is where I played it for £6.99 or approximately $8.83. Lastly, I’d like to add that Schrödinger’s Cat and the Raiders of the Lost Quark is a physics based puzzle platformer that has an anthropomorphised Schrödinger’s Cat help to take care of an emergency at the particle zoo, where a whole mess of protons are causing havoc…talk about chaos theory, am I right?

I promise after that I’ll leave the funnies up to the people who write the script, but anyway on with the review, the first thing that I noticed was that the animation was unique and stylised, it led to a highly enjoyable gaming experience. Alongside that is some strong voice acting, although I do have to admit it wasn’t seamless alongside the animation in the intro, but didn’t cause any further issues throughout the rest of the game.

I mentioned up top leaving the funnies to these guys and to be honest that was a good choice, the humour in the game works well, its timely and quippy and didn’t feel too cheesy, as the cat said to the mouse. Okay I’m seriously done now. Throughout the whole game we are presented with certain concepts, terminology and references that build up the games physics based reality, although I suppose all reality is based upon physics but you get what I mean, anyway despite using certain terms it doesn’t present them in such a way as to prevent the player from enjoying or understanding what’s going on even if they don’t fully understand the background. In fact if anything I feel it encourages you in an honest and organic fashion to research these things on your own, and that’s not something that every game can say.

Speaking of which, I really enjoy how we are introduced to the Quarks, the up Quarks especially. Cute little guys. You can have a real blast with this game, and the Quarks are a large part of that, I do wish that they didn’t cry out in pain when you used them because that’s more guilt than I’m willing to deal with in a physics based platformer but maybe that’s just me. Anyway time to explain the Quarks a little, they are a vital part of the game structure, you use combinations of them in different colours to create temporary pieces of matter to help you navigate obstacles, for example three or more up quarks can create a copter that will lift you up and three or more down quarks to smash through the ground below you.

The levels are built in an intuitive way that make it both fun and relatively easy for the player to navigate, while the puzzles make it complicated enough to be interesting. The difficulty also increases as you progress in a steady incline so that you actually feel the progression. But you can always backtrack if you need or want, which is especially good for collecting extra Quarks to be buddies with, which is optional beyond a few of each but is still fun either way.

The puzzles as I mentioned are easy enough to understand or work through but challenging enough especially as you go through the game to make it worth playing and replaying, but if you are ever stuck especially as you progress and develop meowre (more, and that will be my only cat pun…probably) combos then you can always pause and check out the helpful menu combo guide.

To add to all of that we have a smooth jumping mechanic, and lots of little fun things to find, for example early on there’s a sign that says ‘There’s nothing up here’, but to be honest it’s hard to sum up what’s good about this game without just gushing about the rich, lively feel and the genuine fun you can have playing it. I’ve always been a fan of platformers, some of my earliest memories in fact were playing/watching my mother play Spyro and Crash Bandicoot, and while I wouldn’t say that these games are similar except in their platform nature, and possible the tongue in cheek humour, I will say that, my love for this type of game gives me a decent idea of what a platformer is, and Schrödinger’s Cat And The Raiders Of The Lost Quark really feels like one.

So that’s what I thought about Schrödinger’s Cat And The Raiders Of The Lost Quark, I was also lucky enough to get an interview with Kevin Beimers, the developer of the game and Director at Italic Pig, and if you want to check that out then click here, otherwise grab the game on your preferred platform and have a blast.

First Published on: https://offtherecordblog.org/

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