Quirky App Of The Day: Naught
by Kathryn Zane
September 6, 2011
This game is awesome. I just wanted to get that out of the way before I began my review. I know that I can leave some doubt in the beginning as to what side of the fence I'm sitting on, but I wanted to make sure that this review started out with no confusion. Naught is a game that is challenging with interesting graphics, intriguing gameplay and intense puzzles. It offers a mysterious backstory, and the black and white environment is artistic, rather than a copout.
In Naught, gravity as you know it exists, and yet, it doesn't. The game world exists in 360 degrees. You can run on the ceiling, run on the floor or fall through horizontal hallways. How you progress through each level is entirely up to you depending on what you deem to be the best route. Much like the Green Lantern, you are only limited by your own imagination. Once I had played the game long enough, I developed my favorite tactics for maneuvering through certain situations.
Once you get the hang of the gravity, or antigravity, controls, the next phase is to collect the diamonds. These little nasties are hiding throughout each level. There wasn't any indication that I could find before starting a level as to how many diamonds you're supposed to find. The only thing is, you can't progress to the next level without having found all of them. While I have it completely in my power to complain about this feature, I won't. I think it adds dimension to the game.
The developers came up with some rather creative ways to hide secret passageways for caverns and niches to stick the diamonds in. Rather than just cruise, float, fall or whatever you're going to do through each level, you have to engage in the walls of the world around you for the sake of finding passage to the next level.
I genuinely don't want to give too much of the game away. There's the bizarre storyline worth following, just for the sake of finding out what it's about. There's the unique game nature of deciding your own way of hurdling obstacles, and there's the fluid game motion that is above and beyond the gameplay that I'm accustomed to.
Naught is available as a universal app on the App Store for the awesome price of FREE!