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Antichamber Will Confuse Your Brain

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Antichamber, much like the premise of Portal, is a first-person puzzle game, and one that Stephen Totilo fell in love with at PAX 2011.

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Looking at this newly-released trailer, I know what you're thinking: What the hell is going on in this game? What seems like a mesh of geometrical, randomly colored platforms, cubes and gears is actually a series of puzzles. But it's much more than that. What may begin as a simple step down a pathway will turn into a test of your ability to wrap your head around abstract spacial puzzles and non-physical geometry. Fortunately—also very similar to Portal's method of teaching you how to use their puzzles to your advantage—Antichamber features signs posted on the walls that are meant to help in your comprehension of each puzzle.

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Antichamber is a game that will confuse your sense of failure. That's not to say that Antichamber is based on trial and error, it's that it actually changes the definition of error. Falling does not equal death in Antichamber, it just leads to an uncomfortable new path. Doors and walls don't work in the way you're used to in real life and even most other games. If you're not careful, it looks like you'll end up walking the endless spiral staircase for a few loops and effectively let the psychological game best you.

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When Stephen checked the game out, developer Alexander Bruce said he wanted to have it finished by PAX East. We'll soon be seeing what the status of his goal is, but in the meantime you can tease your brain with this trailer.