Nebulous from Namazu Studios is a physics based, outer space-centric puzzle game that puts the fate of wayward (and very chatty) Commander Dash Johnson in your hands. You see, Dash fell into a wormhole during a spacewalk and now it’s your duty to propel him safely through the exit wormhole of each puzzle/room that you are presented with and eventually (hopefully), get him back home. If you succeed, Dash will get sucked through the wormhole (yelling something akin to “whoaaaa!”) and will materialize in the next area. If you fail (and you will until you get a handle on things), spaceman Johnson will be reduced to a dirty yellow stain on the side of some high tech space equipment. Don’t worry though, you can revive him.
At first, these puzzles seem chaotic, as the seemingly random parts presented to you don’t quite fit together in any traditional way. In fact, many of them look like spare parts and leftover pieces of cosmic debris. To solve each puzzle however, is to arrange said parts (albeit only the moveable ones) and use them in such a way that Dash falls through the playing field and towards the exit with gravity to help him along.
All while he yammers on and hurls insults at you.
You see, Dash isn’t exactly impressed with his situation and he kind of blames his fellow astronauts who he doesn’t think too highly of, and that includes you, the player.
Some of the puzzles appear to be chaotic and random, but there is a method to solving each of them. Each subsequent level introduces more devices and more mechanics which you can employ to shuttle Dash around and to avoid increasingly hazardous situations, some of which include deadly lasers. All of this becomes more and more complex requiring stranger and more out-of-the-box, and sometimes counter-intuitive solutions. You just need to think about creative exit strategies even if they might seem as whack as some of Dash’s more colorful insults.
Available for Mac, Windows, PS4 and Occulus. Check out the trailer here:
Developer: Namazu Studios
Get it on Steam
Or for Mac, Windows, PS4 and Occulus.