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Crreep16 karma

Hey Zach, big fan here ;)

So I'm really enjoying Opus Magnum. But I've noticed there is a key difference to other Zachtronics games - There are pretty much no limitations. A big part of why the other titles are as hard as they're are, is that the player is running out of space very quickly. Some games like Shenzhen I/O even have multiple limiting factors (physical space and loc per module for example). OM does away with all of that. What this means is, that the puzzles are a whole lot easier to complete. So far I'm almost through the campaign, and I have optimised perfectly in cost for every solution. Most other titles I got stuck way earlier.

Was this a concious decision for OM, so that the game is easier and more accessible to more players? Or are there other reasons for it? It's been a while since I've played Codex, but afaik there too are both spacial and programming limitations. You also took away the need to keep the parts in sync, as they do so on their own now. Have you taken inspirations by other Zachlikes, like the fantastic Silicon Zeroes by any chance? Will there be more "hardcore" Zachtronic games in the future again, or are you happy how OM turned out?

I'm not at all saying this is a bad thing by the way. OM looks gorgeous, and is fun to play. I just wasn't expecting to breeze through one of your games (optimizing for time will be a whole different story though, I'm sure). The only thing I dislike about the missing limitations, is that puzzles got a whole lot more alike. Pretty much all of them up to the last chapter can be solved with a single arm, and possibly a short rail.

Thank you so much for your amazing games! And for taking the time of reading my question ofc. :)

Crreep3 karma

Thanks for the reply! :) I'm already looking forward to torture my brain with your next game. ;)

But until then I'll have a lot of fun watching the satisfying solutions in OM and failing miserably in SpaceChem and Shenzhen. I can barely imagine how frustrating it has to be for you guys, when only a very small fraction of people even get to see the later levels, let alone the ending of your games. But rest assured that we love them nonetheless. I highly doubt that I'll ever be able to finish SpaceChem. Yet I'll always remember it very fondly and vividly, which is more than I can say about the majority of the games in my library. And the same goes for pretty much all your other major releases.