Thursday, October 24, 2019

"The Bradwell Conspiracy" Review


Welcome to an escape room in video game form.

There's something sublimely satisfying about taking on a tight, well-crafted puzzle game. Developer Bossa Studios crafts just that with "The Bradwell Conspiracy," a brainy psychological thriller that has you scrambling to stretch your lateral thinking capabilities to the brink.

After an explosion disrupts a fundraiser for teh Stonehenge Museum, you find yourself trapped in and underground labyrinth, relying on your wits and deductive reasoning to help you make your way back to safety.

Fans of "Portal" will be at home here. The visually-inspired challenges that Bossa tosses at you make you twist your perspective and reassess the usual standards of logic in order to solve the issues at hand and advance. The mark of a worthwhile puzzle game is its ability to remain fair while also presenting a stiff challenge, and "The Bradwell Conspiracy" is up to the task.

Nothing comes easy in the game, and everything you need to find the answer is always in front of you. Relying on walkthroughs feels like a cop out, robbing you of the triumphant feeling of stumbling onto the solution on your own. When you find yourself stuck, looking up the answer inevitably leads to the resentment of not allowing yourself to persist with the trial and error that would have gotten you to success eventually.

Although the story is thin and content is relatively small -- with limited replayability in the mix -- "The Bradwell Conspiracy" is the ideal airport terminal or commuter game for Switch owners. Sudoku and crossword puzzles can't hang with the serpentine challenges that lie beneath.


Publisher provided review code.

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