[XBLIG] Rotor'Scope: The Secret Of Endless Energy Review

[Spigot]

Rotor'Scope Review

Title: Rotor'Scope: The Secret Of The Endless Energy
Platform: Xbox LIVE Indie Games
Developer: Nivel21
ESRB: Unrated
MSRP: 400 MSP ($5 USD)
Editor: Brock 'Spigot' Wager

What's Hot: Mindbending puzzles; interesting steampunk/time travel storyline; robust level editor

What's Not: Odd character art; lackluster dialogue

Rotor'Scope: The Secret Of Endless Energy garnered second place in the 2009 Dream.Play.Build competition. Coming out of Nivel21, a fledgling developer from Spain, it is a rather robust indie title that packs quite a bang for its low price and humble roots.

Rotor'Scope is a puzzle game with an adventure game paint job, a la the Professor Layton games. The meat of the gameplay is in the puzzles with the story being the impetus to move forward and continue solving puzzles. On the story front, you follow the travails of Julie, a young woman who has recently come into possession of an abandoned house that belonged to a long lost professor. As she makes her way through the mansion, Julie meets up with the mysterious Traveller (yes, that is his name) and together they must unravel the mystery of the Professor's disappearance and also unlock the secrets of the titular Rotor'Scope, a machine that can do almost anything. The dialogue leaves a bit to be desired but it is serviceable enough to drive the story forward and Traveller's ramblings are quirky enough to make up for the bland dialogue spouted by Julie.

This aesthetics of the design are firmly rooted in a steampunk/Victorian sense of style, with lots of gears, pipes and top hats embedded into most of the scenery. The character art is a little odd, but the background paintings and scenery is quite pretty. The Rotor'scope itself has just enough bells and whistles (literally) to pass itself off as a crazy steampunk contraption without taking away from the central focus of the puzzles.

By using the Rotor'Scope at various points in the story, you will trigger a puzzle that needs to be solved to either unlock a door, open a hidden passage or turn on generators, amongst other things. You can also find hidden pieces of artwork and other items that flesh out the backstory of the game. The adventure portion of the game takes place on a map of various locations that brings back memories of the game board from Clue. This isn't just a static map though. In one instance, you'll have to turn on a series of generators in order to power lights that will then reveal more puzzles and areas.

The puzzles themselves are both simple in theory and maddening in execution. Each puzzle is made up of coloured blocks that must be matched together to clear the board. In order to do this, you can rotate the board either clockwise or counter-clockwise or you can flip the board 180 degrees on a horizontal axis. That's about it. This simple set of inputs is put to good use as you must maneuver your blocks around a grid of stationary blocks with only gravity as your ally. It starts off easily enough but by the time you've found the professor's lab, you'll be pulling your hair out trying to solve the puzzles.

Later levels add special features to the blocks, such as magnet blocks which will lock onto like-coloured blocks, bomb blocks that explode and electrical blocks that send out beams of light that destroy otherwise indestructible black blocks. This throws in a whole new spin on the strategies you have to use to clear the boards and can become rather mind-boggling in the latter portion of the game.

Beyond the meaty adventure mode, there are also several standalone puzzles that put certain conditions on the puzzle solution and are even more tricky to complete. And if you manage to solve everything the game throws at you, then hop into the easy-to-use editor and design your own puzzles to share with your friends. There is also Facebook integration that lets you publish your times and issue challenges to your friends.

Rotor'Scope is an ambitious and challenging game with a great sense of style and loads of content. Add in the level editor and pseudo-achievements in the form of in-game awards and hidden art and you can't go wrong if you're a fan of puzzle games. The demo is available on Xbox.com.

Score: 4 out of 5 CoGs


Brock says, "While the character art still bugs me, it is more than made up by the fun story and great puzzles. And all of this for just 400 MSP!"

[Mike Kelehan]

Looks like one of those indie games that's good enough to have a proper XBLA release. And, since it won second place in DBP, it's not like MS doesn't know about it... so why didn't they get a contract?

[Spigot]

That's a very good question... It's a rock solid game. I'm not familiar enough with how all of the indie/XBLA negotiations work, but it is a much better game than a lot of the tripe filling up the marketplace for much more money.

[Food Nipple]

I have the same reaction to this game as I do to the Layton games. I like the puzzles, but the story does nothing for me.

[Spigot]

The game doesn't have the same amount of polish or depth as the Layton ones do but it at least gives you some context for all of the puzzles you're solving. I still don't like the character art that much though.

[Chris_D]

Looks pretty swish, and hardly expensive either (although I believe 400 points is the max for indy games?). To be honest, I wish it was on a handheld though.

[Mike Kelehan]

Originally Posted by Spigot

The game doesn't have the same amount of polish or depth as the Layton ones do but it at least gives you some context for all of the puzzles you're solving. I still don't like the character art that much though.

The second Layton has much more story-based puzzles. That being said, most of them still have nothing to do with anything, which is fine by me.

[Psykoboy2]

Wow...so far, 3 of you are in the running to win one of two copies of this game we have. Your chances are really good.

Course, I probably just jinxed that by bringing it up.

[mister slim]

Hmm, I'll have to give this a download. I hate to admit it, but I just cannot be bothered to filter through the XBLIG very often.

[Kielaran]

Looks interesting. I may have to give it a go.

[Admiral Ackbar]

I liked Layton, but as some have said it was tough to keep my interested. I love Indie stuff on XBLA so it is good to see some polish coming in those games.

[Psykoboy2]

Mike and Chris...congrats!! You each won a copy of Rotor'Scope. Check your PMs for the code.

[Chris_D]

Thanks, I never win anything, this being the exception. You guys rock!

[Mike Kelehan]

After being fortunate enough to win this contest, I played a few puzzles last night, and I have to disagree with the review on one point: I really like the character art. Yes, it's weird. Weird GOOD.

Everything else is spot-on. Challenging puzzles, good production values, obviously English-as-a-second-language dialogue. If this were $10 on XBLA, I'd recommend it, and they only want $5. Top 1% of Indie Games, easy.

[Spigot]

Yeah. The character art is really a matter of taste. I just don't like the way Julie looks. Glad you like it!

[Mahkia]

I've heard very good things about this game. Simple yet devious; exactly how a puzzle game should be.