Induction is a puzzle game releasing today on Steam with time being a key concept. In it you control a cube through over 50 isometric levels attempting in each one to get to the exit point.
The game uses bold, colour-rich visuals that keep each level readable and relatively easy to navigate. Every level fits on one screen and this presents a simple aesthetic that, at first, gives no indication of the complexity Induction is capable of. This complexity is created instead with the game’s main puzzle mechanic, time travel.
Levels are solved by moving around and interacting with the geometry; with bridges that fall down when you cross them or that require you to keep them raised by standing in specific locations and with barrels you can move, trigger switches with and ride upon. You can then use a power that resets the map to the start, only you stay where you are and a new version of you appears and proceeds to replicate exactly what you have just done. While it plays through your earlier motions you remain in control, interacting and augmenting your new, programmed clone, as you see fit. Later levels add new powers that complicate things further, letting you reset the level more times or swap back to your original cube.
All of the puzzles in Induction involve trying to predict what you’re going to need yourself to do and then coordinating yourself with the ghost you set in motion. On top of that your ghost always has to finish off where you left it, with the ultimate goal of creating a paradoxical little time loop you can watch from the menu.
It’s great, and It prevents the sort of accidental puzzle solving some games allow, to get through each puzzle here you’re going to have to learn the level and plan a solution accordingly.
It reminds me in the most flattering way of Jonathan Blow’s Braid, especially its late game puzzles solved with the protagonists shadow. It’s a fantastic mechanic for a puzzle game and is explored in Induction with similar level of depth and complexity, albeit without any sort of highfalutin meta plot. As with Braid, you can speed up and reverse time at will so having to restart puzzles is unlikely. You will probably find yourself idling round the more complicated ones, though, while your brain tries to figure out the solution.
It’s Steam page claims that Induction does not pander with it’s difficulty and to be honest, that’s an understatement. It can be genuinely obtuse at times, with the cube switching mechanic introduced in later levels that makes planning your solutions brain-tormentingly complicated. That said, it is definitely a game that allows you to have many a eureka moment and given enough time all of the solutions can be planned out logically.
If you like puzzle games that slowly introduce you into a series of logical systems and expect you to work out the solutions without hand holding, you might find that Induction is for you. If you get frustrated at the prospect of being stuck on a single puzzle for 10-20 minutes, maybe not.
Either way I hope I have answered any questions you might have about Induction and if not please feel free to ask them below in the comment section.