platform: switch
again, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, PS4, PS5
the publisher: Thunderful
Developer: Space Lizard Studio
Moderate: Digital
player: 1
online: No
ESRB: E10+
If you were to judge a game solely on the amount of thought and care put into it, Paper Cut Mansion would be an easy GOTY contender.
I mean, I’m sure most games have a lot of attention to detail, but in the case of Paper Cut Mansion, it’s especially evident due to its papercraft style graphics. It really looks like someone took the trouble to cut and paste every piece of the game. (Disclaimer/aside: I have absolutely no expertise in this, so I’m not sure how much more work it takes to make a game look hand-crafted compared to making it look like voxel art, for example. , real paper crafts are more tricked my brain into thinking video game paper crafts are the same.)
Besides, a lot of consideration has obviously been put into the game world and its systems. This is a roguelite in which your character, police detective Toby, turned into paper, explores the mansion for clues on how to get out of it. , you have to piece it all together. Thankfully, when you die, you lose everything and have to start over, but you’re left with clues so you can piece together a solution. .
We’ve also added three different levels of reality within the mansion to enhance your creativity. There is a NeoCortex dimension to search for clues and solve puzzles. There is a reptilian complex dimension where you fight (or flee) monsters. There’s a limbic dimension focused on surviving against the elements when the mansion suddenly becomes ice cold.
Unfortunately, despite all the ingenuity in developing Paper Cut Mansion, the developers forgot to do the most important thing: make it fun to play.
To be fair, some of the issues may be Switch-specific. There is. If everything freezes for a second or two before restarting, it reduces the spooky feel of the game. Plus, everything feels slow, whether it’s Toby talking about moving slowly across the screen or the on-screen cursor taking forever to point at an object he picks up.
The bigger problem, however, is that the gameplay is so repetitive that it becomes very boring. In theory it’s great that every run is different. Or it would be if I didn’t encounter the same character explaining the same mechanics over and over. Even afterward, you’ll feel like you haven’t seen anything new.
As I said above, Paper Cut Mansion is just full of ideas, so it’s a real shame that the gameplay doesn’t quite match the originality. Unfortunately, there’s a huge chasm between coming up with something cool and making it work, and unfortunately it’s not a chasm this game can bridge.
Thunderful provided the code for the Paper Cut Mansion Switch for review.
School year: Ha
