s_d
S. joined
Long time Linux gamer!
Reviews
Beautiful retro-styled pixel-art, reminiscent of the best VGA titles of the 1990's, and well-balanced level progression combine in Great Permutator to provide a fun puzzler with built-in level editor. New mechanics are introduced at exactly the right pace, and the controls are very intuitive.
One standout feature is the background music, evoking an atmosphere of scientific discovery and invention. Similar in many ways to another puzzle favorite of mine, SpaceChem, the Great Permutator ramps up quickly in difficulty, but has a flavor of it's own.
The Linux port itself runs quite well and is performant, as you'd expect of a retro-styled title. My only reservation, techinically, is the absence of a true full-screen mode. The settings menu offers several full-screen options, but all result in the game remaining in windowed mode, but with a display-sized window. Not ideal, but a very minor annoyance indeed.
Deceptively simply mechanics, echoed by the art-direction. What starts as a light and relaxing turn-base sim experience quickly becomes a brutally punishing strategy challenge! Each campaign has a flavor of it's own, and several winning strategies can succeed on each, though each is bounded within mid-scenario objectives. The prestige & reinforcement system adds an intriguing twist which I believe to be vital to completing decisive victories on the most difficult scenarios, though I haven't fully comprehended their strategic importance yet ;-)
I loved it! To me, it was hilarious, gorgeously stylized, solidly built & packaged, and the voice acting added a great deal to the experience. The jazz score was sumptuous, and prompted me to go buy it! I believe it's flaws have been pretty well documented, in particular the uneven voice production and the presence of hotspots near the inventory tray threshold. Also, I'm not sure if it was just short, or so much fun it felt that way, but at the very least I'm really keen to see the remaining chapters!
Also critical for me, Linux support on both x86-64 and ia32 were both superb, an astonishing achievement for such a small team.
Absolutely the best, most beautiful, indie platformer, without exception. Well except, perhaps, Trine 2.
