Developer: Turbo Button
Publisher: Turbo Button
Release Date: Out Now
Format(s): PlayStation VR (Reviewed), HTC Vive, Oculus Rift
Among the recent big name, high-priced releases that have hit PlayStation VR, there’s always room for those smaller titles that don’t cost as much but are equally as entertaining. Floor Plan, the virtual-reality puzzler from the team at Turbo Button, is a fine example of this – it only provides around an hour’s worth of high quality puzzle solving, but it costs less than a fiver. Bargain.
Floor Plan follows a simple concept, with the player stuck in an elevator and having to move between twelve floors whilst solving the puzzles that inhabit them. The ultimate goal is to find all of the pieces of a spacesuit that’s found on the twelfth floor, though each floor you visit will have a series of micro-objectives that you’ll have to figure out too.
These floors are full to the brim with personality and are varied in design. You’ve got the likes of the haunted graveyard where you’ll need to do a bit of grave digging, the ten-pin bowling alley where you have to get a strike, the freezer that homes a chilly snowman, the wild west where you’ll find a duelling robot, and even a flooded basement full of hungry fish – seriously, you’ll never know what you’re going to see next. Best of all, each floor is incredibly well presented with the game adopting a clean and vibrant visual style that’s full of charm. It’s like you’re exploring a zany cartoon world, and it all looks great within the PlayStation VR headset.
All of the puzzles are simple enough and follow the age-old point-and-click adventure style of simply finding the right item and using it with a specific object (or, in some cases in Floor Plan, pig/robot cowboy/gumball machine). It’s simple enough in theory, but given that some of the puzzles are very elaborate in their design and that there are twelve floors (and a basement) to switch between, some puzzles can be real head scratchers. You can store any items on the elevator with you and you’ll never have too many at one time though, so it never feels overwhelming.
There are always subtle clues around to help you out too. It might be a case of it being a small sign in the background, a slight crack in the floor, or just the assistance you can receive from the ‘help’ buzzer on the elevator. In honesty, I’d recommend avoiding the help buzzer – you’ll be given small clues as to how you can progress, but given the short running time of the game it’s more rewarding to try and solve everything yourself.
The puzzle design itself is great though and there’ll never be anything that’ll keep you frustratingly baffled. It’s typically obvious what each item you have in your possession does and what object or person you can use it with, so there’ll rarely be times when you’re aimlessly wandering across the floors of the elevator in confusion (or doing the age old ‘interact with everything’ trick). That being said, there was one particular puzzle that had me stumped for a while – it involved changing the size of a giant coin, but once I figured out what to do, the solution was so obvious I couldn’t help but to be annoyed at myself that it took so long to figure out. There’s definitely a sense of ingenuity to the puzzling though, and it’s a quality that shows throughout.
As mentioned, Floor Plan isn’t a very long game – it took me around about an hour to finish and that was even after getting stumped on one puzzle. There’s nothing to come back to either… I mean, no-one really wants to solve the same puzzles twice, right? However, the game is available for less than five quid, which is an incredibly fitting and fair price. I enjoyed everything I played through in the charming little puzzler, and I think most other players will too – you certainly won’t feel like you’ve been short changed.
