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‘Perfect Angle’ Review – It’s a Matter of Perspective

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While many genres are forced to stick with conventions (action games typically have an ending, for example), puzzle games can basically do whatever they want. That’s both a boon and a curse, as developers can often completely blow your mind or go so far out there that the concept doesn’t quite land. Perfect Angle ($1.99) actually manages to encapsulate both of those concepts, oddly enough.

Perfect Angle goes with a simplistic concept, but follows it all the way through in just about every way imaginable. Players are tasked with first-person puzzles of sorts, locked within a room. From there, perspective is everything. Using the touch interface you can twist and turn the room to your will, attempting to solve logic puzzles that always involve a specific way to “see" the solution. There’s a massive amount of tasks to solve, and even at the level 50 mark I wasn’t feeling the fatigue. It’s a relaxing, zen-like approach to the genre that makes it easy to pick up and play, especially on a mobile device. Puzzles can often involve something as simple as placing a shape together using various objects floating in the sky or seeing something new entirely. It rides the line between obvious and obtuse, which is mostly a good thing.

Angle 1

The way these levels are presented is a bit rigid though. Rather than have a full world map to explore, they’re simply given to the player one after another, with a very non-descript, rigid menu system to fall back on. So if you really liked one stage and want to go back and explore how you got there, tough, unless you solve the puzzle all over again. Perfect Angle gives us a glimpse at how cool this system could have been with transition phases and cool camera work, but alas, it isn’t meant to be.

The story, somehow, is one of the worst I’ve personally come across not only in the mobile realm, but in all of gaming. At first, it starts harmlessly enough, with the conceit that a young girl is actually imagining the entire affair. You’ll get obvious hints like cutscenes with said girl playing with her toys, which conspicuously look like the more dire scenarios you’re experiencing in first-person. But that’s not exactly what’s happening, as you’ll soon learn several puzzle solutions later.

Angle 2

It ends up taking a weird turn that involves “being trapped," which isn’t helped by weird voiceovers that don’t even fit the game’s text. Once the “twist" is uttered it basically lost all credibility and completely took me out of the narrative entirely. It’s best that you ignore it all together, which honestly isn’t that hard to do. It’s weird, because it had the makings of something great, and completely fell apart at the seams before the halfway mark even hit.

The art style, however, works far better than I expected it would. While it may seem like, based on screenshots, that it’s merely comprised of just basic Unity assets, it looks far better in motion. The puzzles often come together in a really cool way, and showcase how far the developers went in terms of creating the game’s world. The soothing soundtrack and even the individual sound effects drive this home. Again, it may seem reductive on paper, but the sheer variety on offer with the landscapes and objects, even when themes are repeated, is impressive.

Angle 3

As a premium purchase one would expect that the pricepoint would cover everything, but that’s not exactly the case. Buying out Perfect Angle does indeed net you all of the puzzles within, but there’s also an IAP scheme attached to it. At the start players will unlock 10 hints that reveal the solutions for really tough puzzles, and additional packs can be purchased for $10 each. I’m torn on this type of monetization myself, as I can see the justification for it (not to mention 10 is a hefty amount anyway), but I don’t like the idea of enticing people to pay to win.

It sounds odd to rail on a story in a puzzle game, but Perfect Angle could have been so much more if it dropped it entirely, or just went in a different direction. That, and it touts “professional acting" and an “original script" as a selling point, of which you should be wary. In the meantime though it’s worth a shot if you’re looking for a simple concept that may wrack your brain every so often. It’s often surprising, and at worst, pleasant.

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