Floor Plan Review

If there’s one genre I’m happy to see doing well in this current generation its adventure games. Speaking to the classic point and click variety (as opposed to the older, more “theater of the mind” driven text adventures), it is fun to see developers use this story and narrative-driven genre to do fun things other action oriented games might not allow or have room for. Floor Plan, developed by Turbo Button, Inc. and available now for PlayStation VR, harkens back to the LucasArts era of adventure games where it was nearly impossible to die and you’d have to apply off the wall logic to complete different puzzles. Floor Plan is severely limited in scope but it nails the fun, cartoonish logic that made games like Monkey Island so charming to play.

This quirky puzzle game sees you kind of trapped in an elevator. I say “kind of” because although you’re free to move to and from twelve different floors, you never actually venture outside of the moving steel box. Instead, puzzle items and elements are within reach of your disembodied hands that are controlled either by the PlayStation Move wands or the DualShock controller. I liked using the Move wands because of the immersion it offers, even though you’re mostly holding down a button to grab far away objects and interact with other stage elements.

The goal of Floor Plan is to use a series of items in such a way that lets you collect missing pieces of a space suit located on the top floor of the building. To do this, you’ll have to deal with lava pools, an irate snowman, a jackhammer that’s sleeping on the job, and a bee pollinating wild and trippy looking flowers. There’s a lot of cartoon logic applied to the situations you find yourself in which means none of the solutions are as straightforward as you might think. Should you get stuck, buzzing the in-game hint line will provide you with up to two clues to help push you along the right path.

And that’s all there really is to say. Charming though Floor Plan may be, it’s ridiculously short. According to the end of game stats screen, it took me 33 minutes to complete the game. And there’s a trophy available for those who can beat the whole game in ten minutes. Even though the game only costs six dollars, I felt a little cheated by the length. I certainly wasn’t all that jazzed by the lackluster, ho-hum of an ending. I should have known what would happen after I finished putting together a space suit but even then I was still slightly disappointed by the whole thing. On the plus side, it’s an easy game to earn a Platinum Trophy from! It’s also a fun game to look at because the visuals match the lighthearted vibe of the whole thing.

You can’t go wrong with a game that costs six dollars. I mean, it’s hard to complain about something as short as this when it costs about the same as an iced coffee from Starbucks. I guess what it comes down to is me feeling like I wasn’t ready for the game to end so soon. It does a fine job at being an adventure game–the puzzles are fun and offer an entertaining challenge–but once the game ends, it’s so easy to forget about it. The price doesn’t hurt but if you’re looking for a fun, interactive, escape room-style game with lots of substance and style, kick in a few extra dollars and grab I Expect You To Die.

REVIEW CODE: A FREE Sony Playstation 4 code was provided to Brash Games for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to editor@brashgames.co.uk.