Vitrum combines first-person puzzling with colorful, controlling crystals

Vitrum

It's not often you spot a softly glowing sign warning of gravity-changing crystals in puzzle-platformers, but Vitrum fills that niche nicely. On the e-shelf today from developer 9head Games, the indie puzzle-platformer shuffles up the house that Portal built with an array of power-granting crystals, a suitably bloom-ified tech motif, and a throbbing ambient electronica soundtrack worthy of space hibernation.

Solving Vitrum's Rubik-like room layouts involves harnessing energy from various crystals found during your travels. Most of the granted abilities -- a short air dash, a push of energy, and so on -- allude to solutions entailing timing and carefully aimed jumps. The real draw is the ability to combine the powers surging in each of your android hands and the almighty gravity crystal that exchanges floor with ceiling on the fly. There's a cliff-sharp ramping of puzzle difficulty -- it's no easy task to gyrate into a tiny cubby hole surrounded by deadly red crystals after simultaneously air dashing and watching the room spin sickeningly. Good luck .

Vitrum carries a pay-as-you-like price on Gumroad with a requested $5 minimum for covering overhead.

Omri Petitte

Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?