Instantion Review
Do you ever wish you had a clone of yourself? Someone who could help around the house or do the laundry while you played games? Maybe even a third and a fourth clone; one to do the dishes and the other to cook dinner? Well, apart from the “having all your chores done” part, that’s the core premise behind Instantion, a sci-fi puzzle game from developer Finjitzu Software.
Your goal is to solve sidescrolling puzzles by duplicating yourself up to three times (resulting in a total of four characters on screen) and manoeuvring these duplicates around stages to hit switches, open doors and generally progress through the game. It’s an interesting premise and one that gets put to good and varied use throughout the game's 50 levels.
It can’t go without mentioning, however, that Instantion is a fairly blatant clone (no pun intended) of Facepalm Games’ 2013 puzzler, The Swapper, for the PC. While that in itself doesn’t make a game less fun, the fact that it is inferior in pretty much every way to the “original,” does. It throws up the question, if you can have a similar gaming experience while you’re on the road for a fraction of the cost, does that make up the difference in quality? Hmmm…
Finjitzu do attempt to give Instantion a different feel, leaving The Swapper’s broody atmosphere behind for a more vibrant and neon soaked futuristic setting – think of an 80’s vision of the inside of a computer and you’re there. The electronic music is a meaningful addition to the overall ambience, too, even if at times it could be accused of being a little generic.
While it may not match The Swapper’s high standards, the core gameplay gimmick does deliver fun and challenging gameplay where navigating that last clone to its rightful resting place can feel very rewarding. Your clones move 1:1 relative to your main character’s movement, so successfully placing all three clones requires precise and calculated routes. There are obstacles for the clones to avoid adding extra layers of strategy to your play, but some technical and control problems can hinder your progress. I couldn’t ever get the feel for the aiming reticule that disperses your clones right, which made placing them in specific spots often a complex and frustrating chore.
Also the puzzles feel designed in such a way that broadly understanding what needs to happen to solve a room is never going to be enough, you often have to stand in very specific places and throw clones to very specific spots to complete puzzles. This definitely helps to increase the tension and the difficulty of the puzzles, but it required a stronger user interface and ends up coming across as clumsy rather than clever.
I’m not sure if Instantion was already well into development when The Swapper came out or not, but its interesting premise is weakened by the fact the idea has already been done, and more effectively (albeit on other platforms), too. It makes Instantion a hard sell. It delivers on enough of what it sets out to do to provide some mild entertainment, but if I did have an army of clones at my dispersal, I might choose to cook dinner and hand Instantion over to one of them.
Writer:
Jesse Miles
