- Publisher: Demruth
- Release Date: Jan 31, 2013
- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
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Feb 11, 2013Alexander Bruce - Antichamber's creator - went out of his way to give us something more than just another first-person Portal-inspired puzzle game that appeals to critics using it's alleged artistic value. Antichamber is an unusual, fresh, intriguing and great experience. A complex mind game that will find fans among art lovers and regular gamers alike. Give your brains a break from regular shooters and give them something more interesting to process. Give them Antichamber.
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Jan 31, 2013Antichamber is the film "Cube" sans horror, the threat of death, and poor acting. It's insanely hard and painfully simple, just like any expertly crafted puzzle. Bruce has created one of the finest and most challenging puzzle games I have ever experienced.
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Mar 8, 2013In its own way, Antichamber serves as an antithesis to modern day video game design. Just to experience solving a puzzle by thinking outside of the box makes Antichamber a must play for anyone looking to be challenged.
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PC PowerPlayMar 7, 2013Don't play it as a puzzle game. Play it as a way of recalibrating your perception of reality. [March 2013, p.96]
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Feb 12, 2013Antichamber requires you to realign your thinking, and there’s little that’s more satisfying than breaking through the mental barrier you’ve erected for yourself to discover a solution.
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Feb 11, 2013The feeling of accomplishment in this game is one of the most gratifying I’ve ever felt, and the few hours I spent inside Antichamber’s world felt like interacting with someone’s bizarro art exhibit.
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Feb 11, 2013Challenging, smart, entertaining, extremely immersive, never boring, Antichamber is a stunningly beautiful puzzle game and another deep, original indie title, with a lot of character. If you love the genre, you cannot miss it.
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Feb 8, 2013This is a rare gem among modern-day games. It proves that even the simplest concept can be pushed beyond the limits few people dare to explore. It’s a valiant experiment and one that has brought some truly satisfying results.
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Feb 6, 2013If you open your eyes, ears and brain for Antichamber, Alexander Bruce' mufti-dimensional labyrinth is a sublime experience without compare.
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Feb 6, 2013Playing Antichamber is like entering in a museum of contemporary art: you have to leave every assumption outside if you want to understand what is inside.
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Feb 4, 2013Antichamber may very well be one of the best puzzle games in a long, long time. Artistically, in terms of game design, and atmosphere, the purity of the logic and the humbling approach to teaching you to trust your brain, almost everything in it is a bliss.
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Feb 4, 2013Antichamber is a giant, brilliant, stripped-down shot of pure mental exercise, delivered with a stark but colorful style and wrapped in an accessible FPS shell.
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Feb 2, 2013Alexander Bruce's biggest achievement with Antichamber is that he created a game that's brilliant and inviting, something that can rarely be said for a game made entirely of difficult puzzles where what you see isn't always what you get and where the room you're standing in can change at any moment.
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Jan 31, 2013Even Antichamber's most punishing designs can't bring you down if you've got a sense of good humor, which its dramatic, shifting world instills in you at every turn.
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Jan 31, 2013Gamers would be hard pressed to find a more unique, engaging puzzle game.
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Feb 14, 2013Antichamber is so much more than a first-person puzzle game. It’s indie development at its best. It’s simple in premise but it makes you question everything you know. It tells its entire story and expresses its entire theme through gameplay and gameplay alone. This is art—admittedly abstract art, but art nonetheless.
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Feb 12, 2013While the more obvious gating puzzles aren’t as charming, Antichamber still manages to craft its conclusion to a crescendo, with the swelling geometry taking on a personality, successfully building a narrative despite a lack of story.
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Feb 9, 2013Antichamber reminds me, why I love games: Because they can still surprise me. This surreal labyrinth doesn’t bend to convention, it questions it with every move. The puzzles ooze creativity and variety.
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Feb 6, 2013A new experience in puzzle games that will keep us playing for a long while. There's a whole new way of solving enigmas while we learn some things about real life thanks to the philosophical clues the game gives us.
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Jan 31, 2013Antichamber has some of the more clever puzzles of any game I've played. It doesn't have much in the way of personality, and its bizarre ending left me wondering why it was included at all, but it makes the act of exploration utterly thrilling.
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CD-ActionApr 5, 2013I just finished Antichamber. I feel satisfaction I haven’t experienced after completing any game in many years and for the first time in ages I learned something about myself while playing. It’s hard for me to expect anything more from a game. [CD-Action 04/2013, p.82]
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Feb 26, 2013It's not fair to say that Antichamber is a Portal clone, but it's safe to say that it is indeed one of the finest puzzle games we've seen since Valve's masterpiece.
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Feb 22, 2013If you like a good puzzle or just want to try something new, Antichamber will stretch your mind and twist your perception, and it’s definitely worth checking out.
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Feb 20, 2013Antichamber is a wonderful puzzle game set in a psychedelic labyrinth made of colors and geometrical shapes, a mental trip with clear references to famous works of MC Esher.
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Feb 12, 2013Antichamber will turn your brain inside out and then ask you to reach inside your own head and turn it back the right way. It’s quite unlike anything else I’ve ever played, and it simultaneously made me feel like an idiot and a genius. It’s daring, confident, original and enjoyable, not to mention ridiculously smart. Just make sure you’ve got some paracetamol handy before you start playing.
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Feb 1, 2013Whoever wants to try something new in 2013: Antichamber has got you covered. The psychological journey developer Alexander Bruce takes you on makes you forget everything you know about videogames, and everything about the world around you. There is a chance that your brain isn’t ready for this type of psychological violence, but whoever dares to surrender themselves to Antichamber won’t be disappointed.
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Jan 31, 2013Antichamber looks great, is confusing in all the right ways, and may change the way people approach not only videogame puzzles, but real life obstacles as well.
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Jan 31, 2013Antichamber bends the rules of space and time with challenging puzzles and a fantastic sense of atmosphere.
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Feb 11, 2013Quotation forthcoming.
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Feb 11, 2013Antichamber impressed me from start to finish with the variety and complexity of its puzzles. I never felt like I had to repeat the same tasks over and over, and my mind was always being engaged.
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Games Master UKMar 24, 2013Complex and beautiful. [Apr 2013, p.84]
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Feb 11, 2013Antechamber is an original and brilliant puzzle game. A title that constantly surprises you with amazing intellectual challenges in a psychedelic world.
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Jan 31, 2013Clever, but sometimes a little cold, this is an accomplished headscratcher of unusually philosophical ambition.
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PC Master (Greece)Jun 10, 2013If you’re looking for the most extreme, bizarre, intelligent and wacky puzzle game, look no further. [April 2013]
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Pelit (Finland)Mar 15, 2013Inventive, stylish, thought-provoking, polished - these are just some of the ways to describe the best first-person puzzle game since Portal. [March 2013]
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Hyper MagazineMar 12, 2013An ambitious, unique, and intelligently-designed puzzle game that is as gratifying as it is frustrating. [Apr 2013, p.72]
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Feb 18, 2013It all culminates in an ending that will probably become one of those iconic gaming moments - similar to the ending of Fez, it provides a great sense of closure while also making no apparent sense whatsoever.
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Feb 17, 2013While it may occasionally frustrate, Antichamber is a wonderful experience. There are vague hints of a plot, but it's a plot about self-discovery and making progress, about learning how to overcome challenges and find your way through life's confusions.
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Feb 11, 2013The qualities are largely predominant over drawbacks, making Antichamber a must have for puzzle game integralists.
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Feb 11, 2013A wonderfully pleasant experience that is best served in smaller chunks, which left me in my own personal nightmare: I was having such a great time that I felt like I wanted to continue playing, but I had used up all of my smarts for the evening, leaving me bumping up against puzzles that I wasn't even sure could be solved with the version of the tool I had at the time.
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Feb 7, 2013The main slight against Antichamber is its personality, or lack of. It's visually interesting but also feels atmospherically empty and austere. If you can embrace that, though, and you have enough patience to crack the obstacles in your way, there may not be a puzzle game this year more rewarding as this one.
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Feb 6, 2013Antichamber finds strength in its simplicity. Its puzzles aren't convoluted, the solutions are usually always staring you in the face, and yet still the game is challenging. Not everyone will appreciate the game's minimalist elegance, but Alexander Bruce’s approach to game design can't be labeled as anything but clever.
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Feb 6, 2013Frustrating and confusing almost by design, Antichamber is nevertheless one of the most intelligent and imaginative puzzle games for years.
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Feb 27, 2013This defines the limit of Antichamber's scope. Bereft of any real narrative, it becomes a game about games. Indeed, it becomes a game about a game: a game about itself. Like the singularity that collapses the game's world in its final moments, Antichamber folds in on itself until its revelations get obscured by its own self-absorption. The player can ultimately escape the Antichamber, but it seems like its creator didn't.
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Mar 5, 2013Like a lot of various other media and art, I can appreciate the technical skill involved in its creation, but find it a tad too vexing for my own personal enjoyment. Maybe this dog’s too old to be taught new tricks; players more able of mind may fare better. But don’t count on it.
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Feb 6, 2013Antichamber teaches you to expect the unexpected, and while some of its later tasks may prove ridiculously difficult, the initial half of the game never seizes to amaze, nor surprise. It may fool you into thinking you have some kind of clue about what’s going on or how to break the mold, but trust me, you don’t.
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Mar 6, 2013As an experimental bit of game design full of intriguing puzzles that defy earthly geometry, Antichamber is a success. Yet given a choice, I’d much rather spend my time with a more conventional first-person puzzler like Portal 2, Quantum Conundrum or Q.U.B.E. Maybe Antichamber is a little too clever for its own good. Or maybe I’m just dumb.
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Feb 11, 2013In the end, though, it left me cold. Antichamber's frosty and self-satisfied air is preferable to the chummy japery of Kim Swift's Quantum Conundrum, for sure - but both games have made a similar mistake in hiving off half of Portal's personality and expecting it to stand on its own.
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Feb 1, 2013Antichamber is many things – a remarkable technical achievement, a smart subversion of its genre, a game that plays you as much as you play it – but you're more likely to respect it than enjoy it.
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Apr 1, 2013Antichamber is an intriguing little experiment. It is both a humble imitation and an attempt to avoid all the trappings and clichés of the genre. Alas, it fails to excite. Unlike Echochrome and Braid, where we bending realities to our will, in this game its creators simply tease us whenever they feel like it.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 485 out of 621
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Mixed: 85 out of 621
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Negative: 51 out of 621
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Feb 11, 2013
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Feb 1, 2013
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Jan 31, 2013