Membrane

 Switch
User Score
7.5

Generally favorable reviews- based on 30 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 21 out of 30
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 30
  3. Negative: 6 out of 30

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  1. saiteron
    Oct 8, 2019
    3
    short take: wanted to love it but beyond a surface level found more to hate than love.

    long take: Membrane looks and sounds great. the simple but vibrant graphics and basic but effective music and sfx give the game a crisp, modern feel. when it comes to gameplay, however, Membrane offers a series of repetitive, shallow puzzles that vary wildly from too easy to blisteringly difficult,    short take: wanted to love it but beyond a surface level found more to hate than love.

    long take: Membrane looks and sounds great. the simple but vibrant graphics and basic but effective music and sfx give the game a crisp, modern feel. when it comes to gameplay, however, Membrane offers a series of repetitive, shallow puzzles that vary wildly from too easy to blisteringly difficult, exacerbated by imprecise controls, poorly defined mechanics and semi-unpredictable physics.

    generally speaking, easy puzzles in the early game prepare you for the harder ones later on, but occasionally I found a level that took so much longer to complete than the adjacent puzzles that I was sure I had somehow skipped ahead a section. I'm no stranger to hard games, but in games I truly love, the difficulty ramps more gradually and predictably. In Membrane I'd often suddenly find myself stuck for nearly half an hour after breezing through puzzle after puzzle effortlessly. To make things worse, the source of the sudden challenge was often related to the bad aim controls: when aiming, there is absolutely no nuance to your joystick motion. all aiming is "on" or "off", meaning your target changes at the same speed whether tilting the stick gently or with gusto. This makes precision nigh impossible which becomes a glaring issue whenever a puzzle requires accuracy.

    the last beef I have here is with the imprecision of the physics engine. a perfect example can be found in a level that requires pressing a switch to launch a big green ball. the ball starts the level moving. if you wait for it to reach a position of rest, theoretically it should launch identically (or at least with minimal variance) every time. instead, I discovered the amount of time I wait after the ball stops moving greatly impacts its response to the launcher. wait half a second and the ball veers far off target; wait two-ish seconds and it's a bullseye. wait three? again, far off target. three and half? off target but in a different direction. the logic behind this escapes me. plenty of other examples of things varying wildly due to seemingly arbitrary factors as well.

    in summary: Membrane seems like it could have been great but uninspired puzzle design, faulty controls and fallible physics make for a frustrating experience.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
71

Mixed or average reviews - based on 7 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 7
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 7
  3. Negative: 1 out of 7
  1. DarkStation
    May 29, 2018
    40
    I really hope to see Membrane revisited at some point with a greater focus on making satisfying puzzles and using the mechanics to their fullest extent. As it stands, though, there really isn't much to go on here. Membrane's got great aesthetics and all, but there's nothing to really back it up, and so you wind up going through the game without feeling much like engaging in it. There are fun levels sprinkled throughout, but for the most part, I found myself wondering what the point was, and never wound up finding an answer.
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  2. TheSixthAxis
    May 10, 2018
    80
    Membrane is an immensely enjoyable puzzle game filled an increasingly interesting use of it’s simple base mechanics.
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  3. GameSpace
    Apr 18, 2018
    80
    Membrane is a delightful title for the Nintendo Switch that offers hours of fun solving increasingly complex puzzles.
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