Playing through Manifold Garden is a lot like examining an MC Escher work, admiring its beautifully impossible architecture while parsing the complexity of the world. It’s undoubtedly confusing at first, but look close enough and you’ll get a grasp of the mechanics holding this reality together. I’ve played my fair share of first-person puzzle games, and I can’t remember the last time I played something this unique, intelligent and downright beautiful.

Manifold Garden is a stunning puzzle game, one that will leave a lasting impact on you, not just for its thought-provoking puzzles, but by virtue of the fact that you're essentially playing an actual piece of art. It's bloody delightful!

Manifold Garden is the best first person puzzle game since Portal 2. Unique spatial mechanics, a world that brings to life M.C. Escher’s work, a winsome art style and masterfully designed puzzles make this one of the easiest recommendations of 2020 so far.

It could well be overwhelming for some, but on the whole, if you give it time, the visuals, the soundtrack, the concept and the gameplay of Manifold Garden will more than deliver.

Moreso than a lot of games, this is an art piece, an achievement to be admired. Completing puzzles and unlocking the various ways the game plays with its central mechanic all provide the catharsis of truly understanding each new environment and admiring the clever ways the developer wrapped everything together. From a pure gameplay perspective, it's a bit clunky, but you could say that about the work of many of the great artists and composers. Manifold Garden may not be much of a game, but it's surely an adventure that's worthy of some attention.