bloolight's Full Review: Physicus for Windows, Mac
It's unusual to see a game that decides to use physics to save the world rather than blow it to smithereens, yet Physicus tries to do just that. Using the type of game format made popular by the "Myst" series of titles, this game endeavors to do what has been seemingly impossible for most software companies: make an educational game that's fun. For the most part, they succeeded.
The background story is interesting, although it lands squarely in the realm of science-fantasy rather than science-fact. A meteorite has hit the surface of the planet, causing it to stop rotating. In order to get the planet going again, a mysterious scientist has created a massive "impulse" machine that is designed to launch an enormous rock into space. This impulse would then cause the Earth to resume its rotational motion, saving the day. The only problem is that the electrical supply to this machine has not been turned on.
This is where the player comes in. For some mysterious reason, you are given the job of supplying electrical power to these machines through the use of clues and knoweldge left by the scientist who invented the darn thing. Now, you may wonder why the guy who invented the machine couldn't figure out how to turn it on...so am I. Suffice to say, the reason for your presence is not adequately explained, nor is it particularly important. What is important is that you find yourself wandering around a 3D environment of quirky buildings, strange contraptions, and lots of puzzles as you attempt to activate and calibrate three electrical generators.
The whole gimmick behind this title is that a knolwedge of physics is going to be necessary to solve the puzzles. These range from figuring out how to lift a barrel from a cellar door using a block and tackle to adjusting variable transformers in order to produce the required output voltage. In some cases, these puzzles are fairly intuitive and suitable for younger persons. In other cases, the puzzles would be very very hard for those who are not physics teachers, like this reviewer. I had no problem figuring out all of the various formulas necessary, but I think a physics rookie would have quite a challenge ahead of them. Particularly some of the electricity equations can be daunting. Because I work with these basic equations every day of my life, I did not have to go through the process of learning them. That made the game go by much faster than it would for the non-expert player.
Still, you are given a nice database of physics tutorials which help bridge the gaps. The tutorials are actually very well done, and have wonderful graphics incorporated into them. I'm actually thinking about using some of these in my classroom!
The biggest problem with the game is that there are certain places where dumb luck is more important than knowledge. For example, there are many spots where you have to hunt for items that are simply hidden from view in corners of buildings. The only way that you can tell that these items are important is if you move the curser over them and it changes shape. This can be VERY frustrating at times, so you need to make sure you swipe the cursor over everything that you see just to make sure that you haven't missed anything.
This is a nice little game. It took me about a day to win it (5 hours), but I have no idea how long it would take a teenager or non-physics person to win. A worthy title.
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