Floor Plan is a fun little puzzle game for PSVR from Turbo Button. It’s been out for a while on the North American PSN store, but we have finally received it in Europe today. It’s akin to a point-and-click puzzle game, albeit a very simple one, where you must complete a fair amount of inventory-based puzzles in order to succeed. However, what sets this game apart from other similar games is that in this one you don’t move, the environment does.
**As usual, the images are blurry due to second-hand capture via the PC – in VR they are much clearer**
I love this guy!
At the core of it, Floor Plan is a glorified ‘escape room’ puzzle as you appear to be either glued to the floor or stuck in some kind of time displacement field within a small elevator. You can’t walk or rotate within your solitary confinement, with only your disembodied hands as a means to interact. Speaking of which, Floor Plan comes with two control methods, although I can really only recommend one – you can either use two move controllers or a regular DS4 controller – guess which one I recommend…
Clearly, it’s the move controllers! Both methods work just fine but when you’re in DS4 controller mode you are forced to just look at a point of interest and press X on the gamepad – that’s literally the only button you press. At least with the two move controllers, you can move your virtual hands and wiggle items you have picked up around for your own amusement. However, as I’ve mentioned above, you don’t move, so you have a laser target coming out of your fingers and any object that’s ‘usable’ will be brought to your hands via the power of the Force – oh, did I forget to mention that? You have Jedi powers…
Not quite sure why he has a snorkel if I’m being honest…
The one thing that can make or break this game is its puzzles – if they are bad or if they don’t work then the whole thing becomes pointless and boring. Let’s just say that I had a lot of fun and even played through it three times in order to collect the remaining trophies I missed. Some of the puzzles are quite obscure but looking back at it – nothing was impossible or there to trick you – it’s just that some of the puzzles require you to think outside of the box; or elevator, if you will…
If you do get stuck at any point then you can always hit the ‘call’ button on the bottom of the elevator keypad in order to receive a hint from the building supervisor/security guy. He offers you up to two hints per puzzle, the first is usually cryptic and the second almost tells you what to do. I used it once in my first playthrough – which took me 38 minutes – then my second and third playthroughs were 9 and 8 minutes each due to me knowing the solutions.
Can you find his suit?
The ultimate goal of the game is to rebuild a spacesuit that is currently placed upon a dummy on floor 12. In order to do so, you must traverse the various floors and look for objects to use on another floor to gain another object to use elsewhere. There are also some floors with magical abilities which can be used to help you as well as the fact that all the floors are connected – so, one thing happening on one floor will affect the ones above and below it.
What makes this game even more enjoyable is the way the progression system works. You begin with access to a few rooms and upon finding a part of the spacesuit and placing it back on the dummy, you will gain access to more floors. At first, this is great as you only have a few rooms to check if you get stuck and only so many actions you can perform if you don’t want to ask for help. However, once you have unlocked all 13 floors, you may get a little lost at first as some of the solutions are a little out there.
This guy is crazy! All the characters are so charming.
Onto the technical aspect – Floor Plan makes full use of the PS4 Pro, utilising the machine to deliver a clean and clear image at 120fps, whilst the base PS4Â still looks great but is running at a reduced 90fps. In regards to the graphics, the game has a cartoony look about it which fits in perfectly with the comedy the game portrays – it’s clearly a family game that is intended for everyone to have a go at trying to solve the puzzles. I think it looked great though and the art direction was spot on.
This also brings me to the actual level design – I applaud the team for this. Every single floor has its own personality and charm about it, from the lava infested hell-like room to the cool freezer complete with raw meat and a shivering snowman. Even though you can’t physically go inside of the room, all the small details are there and really add to the experience – for example, as the elevator approaches the Hell room, a red light emanates from the lift doors and then proceeds to get brighter as the doors open.Â
Another really cool effect is in the freezer room, again. As you stand there looking around, every now and again you will see your breath as you breathe! At first, I thought it was listening to me as it came out as I breathed, but it wasn’t – it was just a coincidence (I think).
The sound is pleasant enough – there is the obligatory muzak in the lift and various sound effects in each room to set the mood. I couldn’t really ask for any more!
Official Trailer:
Final Conclusion:
Floor Plan was a joy and a delight to play. The environments are creative, the characters are adorable and the inventory puzzles are clever, if not a little cryptic at times. Your first playthrough will take you around 30-40 minutes with subsequent ones being much faster as you now know the solutions – this does impact on the replayability but for the price, I believe it’s worth it. If you enjoy point-and-click puzzle games or you just want a short game to play for a great price, then I can’t recommend it enough.
A copy of the game was kindly provided for review purposes
Floor Plan
£4.99
The Good:
- The characters are oozing with charm and personality
- The level designs are great (even though you can't enter the rooms)
- Some of the puzzles are quite clever
- 120fps on the Pro and 90fps on the base PS4
- Great Price
The Bad:
- The game is quite short with little replay value after you have 100% all of the trophies
- No platinum
