Q.U.B.E. 2

Q.U.B.E. 2 is a puzzle game that will easily appeal to many players thanks to its captivating visuals and good execution of its puzzles. Even if its visual performance has some issues when it comes to the framerate, it's safe to say most players will feel enticed by Q.U.B.E. 2's puzzles and dedicate themselves to the game all the way to its ending.

Exploring test chambers and completing mind-bending puzzles never gets old. With a clever, creative and innovative premise, Q.U.B.E. 2 is a first-person puzzle game good enough for you to overlook its shallow narrative and technical flaws.

The campaign itself is quite lengthy with some of the later puzzles taking a little bit more to work out, but the game does such a fantastic job of gradually introducing new ideas that nothing feels insurmountable. It doesn’t feel quite as polished as it did when I played it on Xbox One, however it feels great to sit and muddle my way through the clever puzzles again, especially in handheld mode.

Q.U.B.E. 2 is a welcome addition to the puzzle genre but is not without its technical hiccups on the Switch. While it struggles occasionally under the hood, if you're willing to look past these shortcomings, there's a fun game with its fair share of brain-bending challenges for die-hard puzzle fiends.

The story is of an archaeologist stranding on an alien planet who must… solve puzzles to escape? Plot and writing are not Q.U.B.E. 2’s strong points, lying deep in Portal’s shadow, but on gameplay terms this stands alone as a very gratifying experience that comes recommended.

It’s pretty to look at and mechanically sound, with its only real downfall being the clunky joystick response which – while not game breaking – can simply be a little frustrating in an otherwise relaxing experience.

It’s just such a shame that the game is such a shame to play, then. I even wound up looking up a video of a puzzle solution because I thought the game was broken, and it was a guy playing the PC version and I was so envious about how it looked. Frame rates! Smooth camera control! Foliage that isn’t popping in and out at random! It was lovely, I mean, seriously, I’ve already harped on it but if you can play another version of Q.U.B.E. 2, then go play that instead. It’s a great puzzle game, it just needs to play better.

QUBE 2 is an enjoyable physics-based puzzler, but unfortunately, the game does falter once you take the focus away from the puzzles. While it struggles with visual and technical issues, they’re not enough to keep you from getting to the end of the story. It’s not that the game is bad, the Switch version is just not the most ideal option with the game available on other consoles. If you want a puzzle game that gives you a limited amount of tools to work out how they all fit together, there is still enough to like here to give it a try.

Despite improvements the debt to Portal cannot be fully repaid in this cleverly-constructed by staid first person puzzler.

Despite the technical problems, Q.U.B.E. 2 is still an incredible game that I had trouble putting down. I can’t remember the last time I played a puzzle game with so many unique elements to keep track of, and it’s definitely rare that I’ve played a game with so many puzzles that are so consistently well-designed. Out of the 80+ puzzles, I wouldn’t say a single one was bad, and none of them were so obtuse that I needed to give up and find a solution online—although some definitely stumped me for a while. If a patch or two comes out to fix the performance problems in the late game, then picking this up will be a no-brainer.

Not helped by technical glitches and cumbersome controls, Q.U.B.E. 2 boxes itself in with tedious gameplay and a sluggish pace.