Antichamber

Where to start?

I have never been more confused in my life. Antichamber is a puzzle game – I think – that is set in a very simple first-person shooter setting. I say simple in that it is literally just a series of hallways and doors, some are brightly colored, but many are just plain white. And I mean really white. Like blindingly white. I now know why mental institutions tend to go for more of a tan color these days. The walls are so white, in fact, that even though I played the game fully two days ago, I still can’t see anything. I’m just typing on feel alone. Thank God for those classes in middle school.

Speaking of insane asylums, Antichamber has this sort of crazy feel about it. And, for clarification, I mean insane crazy, not whacky crazy – just in case you didn’t pick up on that. Antichamber likes to start you in the middle and then proceed to send you to the beginning end. This is a new place that was made up for the purposes of the game and cannot exist in the real world. I spent probably a full three minutes walking up a flight of blue stairs to find a white hallway that wandered around a few corners to the same set of blue stairs, which also happened to be located next to a set of descending red stairs that did very much the same thing. Eventually I turned around to attempt to backtrack only to find a green hallway that led me somewhere else and that is when I sat down in a corner and began to rock back and forth while crying and sucking my thumb.

Antichamber is not a safe game to play while under the influence of mind-altering drugs. This should be a disclaimer when you purchase or begin playing the game, but it isn’t. I was not on mind-altering drugs while playing, but it felt like I might as well be.

Eventually I got to a point where I wasn’t really sure where to go anymore, because everything kept bringing me back to the previous room that I hadn’t been to. By that point I didn’t want to play anymore. This wasn’t because I didn’t like the game. I’m all for a good mind-fuck. But I have this problem with motion sickness and I’ve come to realize over the years that if I get bored playing a game (particularly first-person games) or can’t figure out what to do for an extended period of time, I start to get loopy and eventually have to quit. I will probably go back to it at some point, but I have a feeling this will be a game that takes me a long time to complete simply because of my condition.

Happy Thoughts: This game is weird.

Sad Thoughts: Barf.

The Bottom Line: I wouldn’t be surprised if it turned out you were in a mental institution at the end of the game. I think that if you don’t have my motion sickness problem and you don’t mind wandering ever-changing hallways you will probably enjoy this game. Go forth and get lost.