I really love the sort of puzzle games where you have to shift perspective so that you cannot see the object anymore. I am finding more and more of these popping up around, and have really taken to playing with them! Empty. is the latest one to hit my tablet, with tons of rooms to blend into nothingness.
In Empty. there are several different objects in each room. These objects need to be blended in with different colored walls until they disappear entirely. They glow from time to time, reminding you which objects you should be looking at, and it’s up to you to move and twist the world around so that you can disappear the objects. In between each room, there are quotes that you need to stick together correctly.
These quotes are sort of tedious, they are simple to put together but they don’t mean much. Some of them are trying to be deep, stating that everything leads to emptiness - others are quotes that are from other pieces of work. I don’t care too much for them and instead, just go by them to connect to the puzzles.
As you continue through the game, the puzzles do start to change. Some of the items start to glow other colors, which when combined with their wall, change the colors of the wall. You will need to start thinking about the order that you change the walls and what needs to be transformed into nothingness before you can change to the next item.
These various levels, on the menu screen, are represented by a single object, which are revealed after the puzzle has been completed. Empty. does have a hint system, though I don’t really understand how it is helpful, as it seems to just highlight the objects once again that you need to eliminate.
When it comes to gameplay, I quite enjoy moving the room about, however, some objects act quite strangely. Often, looking at objects that seem perfectly invisible - they just aren’t disappearing. You can nudge them left or right, but they won’t go in. In other levels, the objects just disappear, even if they aren’t completely hidden. It’s as if each object has a hidden “sweet spot” and even if you just connect for a fraction of a second you can end up making the object disappear.
Even with these difficult objects, Empty. is a fun game, well worth playing. You will just need to be a bit patient with some of the levels. Making everything slowly disappear is quite a fun endeavour, and the colors are bright and attractive as well.
Empty. review - "Everything becomes nothing"
The puzzles are colorful and challenging, however sometimes the game doesn't seem to work as intendent. Despite this, you can be patient and nudge objects until they, ultimately, vanish.
Jupiter Hadley
Jupiter is a prolific indie game journalist with a focus on smaller indie gems. She covers thousands of game jams and indie games on her YouTube channel, letting every game have a moment in the spotlight. She runs indiegamejams.com, a calendar of all of the game jams going on in the world, and judges many jams and events. You can find her on Twitter as @Jupiter_Hadley