Track Lab is a musical puzzle VR game exclusively for the PlayStation VR. It requires move controllers in order to play, which does restrict its audience. Using two move controllers means you can use both hands but the gameplay only really requires one hand. After a brief tutorial upon starting the game where you’ll learn some of the “cubes” that you will be using, you’ll be able to dive straight into all the game has to offer. There are two modes, Evolver Mode which gives you a variety of puzzles to solve, and Creation Mode, which allows you to create your own music tracks.
The Evolver Mode is basically a tutorial to help you get your head around the tools in order to create your own music. This is a purely single player game, and Evolver Mode combines puzzle solving with music creation elements. There are four “genres” ranging from Relax to Energetic. Each one has three difficulties, and each difficulty has eight puzzles, making a total of 96 puzzles. In order to solve each puzzle, you have to get the light pulse to go through all the sound bubbles as well as reaching the various goal cubes. Each puzzle gives you some specific cubes to help redirect the light pulse. You use the move controller to grab and play it anywhere on the grid. It’s intuitive to pick up and as you go through the puzzles, you’ll start to compose a track.
The cubes that you’re given to help redirect the light pulse includes angled deflectors, splitters to split the light pulse into more, and cubes that speed up or slow down the pulse.Easy difficulty is, as you’d expect, very easy. It is designed to ease you into the gameplay rather than present any challenge. It allows you to gain familiarity with the various pieces and gets you ready for the higher difficulties. Medium difficulty is still fairly simple. There are times where it will try and trick you with an obvious “solution”. That is until you start putting the cubes into the grid and realize that you don’t have enough to make that solution work. Then you’ll have to change your conception of what the solution should be and find a way to make it work with what you have.
The hardest difficulty is a mixture of easy puzzles and some really tough ones. The ones requiring you to time the multiple light pulses in order to open up gates is really annoying and frustrating. In the more complicated puzzles, you have to observe what is going on at first since it gets pretty crazy with the multiple light pulses, varying speeds, and it bouncing off heaps of things. It’s confusing to try to see the big picture right away; it’s much more practical if you focus on one section at a time.
All the puzzles will only take you around one to three hours to complete. Afterwards, and this is the biggest draw of the game, and where you should spend most of your time, is the Creation Mode. This is where you construct your own loops to create musical tracks. Creation Mode has a lot of sound effects and all the same tools as what was used in the puzzles. There are no restrictions on what you want to construct, and while there are limits on the maximum amount of items you can put in a track, it’s enough. You can mix up to four tracks at once to create complex pieces of music. You’re able to save your tracks but if you’re not into the creation aspect, then there’s not much else for you to do.
The graphics are simple but they work well. The neon colors suits the game and it looks awesome on the more complicated puzzles with effects going off everything. The VR totally immerses you as it feels you can grab, pull, and put stuff anywhere you want like it is actually there. Combined with the music that is slowly coming together as you complete each puzzle, and it is a neat effect.
Overall Track Lab is an interesting and intriguing game. The puzzles themselves are fun enough, although not enough to justify the purchase price. However, if you are into creating your own music tracks and other bits and pieces, then you can spend quite a while in the game. It was released at a low price so it may be worth it as a short puzzle game showcasing VR.
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