The iPhone game ($1.99) provides a unique perspective on a puzzler that basically asks you to fill in the blanks.
Each level of Qbism provides you with an empty outline of a shape and enough blocks to fill in the outline. While that may sound like an incredibly simple premise, the shape and the blocks are three-dimensional, meaning you have to constantly reorient your view in order to move the blocks in the correct way to fill the shape’s outline in.
As you can imagine, the shapes get more complex as you continue playing, but even early on, the game provides a decent challenge as the player will have to view the game unlike any puzzler they’ve played before. That’s not to say it’s too difficult, as the challenge ramps up just as the player should be getting used to the title.
Aside from the blocks, there isn’t too much to look at in Qbism. The backgrounds aren’t anything spectacular, and the blocks certainly won’t wow you, three dimensions or not.
Qbism does surprisingly shine musically, as the band Robot Science soundtracks the game with some great ambient songs that fit the mood of a puzzle game to a T. I rarely notice music in iPhone games, turning it off or very low after a few days, but Qbism’s music will be kept on for as long as I play this game.
About the only negative things to be said for Qbism comes from a rather modest feature set. Although each level is timed, and the number of moves made to finish a level are also counted, there is no timed mode in the game.
The relaxed nature of the game play removes some of the drama of a classic puzzle game like Tetris, where speed is half of the fun. That said, the notes in the iTunes App Store mention a timed mode, among other features, as coming soon to the already solid puzzle game. Even if that weren’t the case, this would be an easy must-have for any fans of puzzle games.
