Shit's dark, yo.

At first, Magrunner appears like nothing more than yet another Portal-alike -- right down to the elevators that carry you from test chamber to test chamber. And not unlike Portal, its puzzle conceit is simple, but compelling: you'll use left- and right-clicks to charge objects positively or negatively, using magnetic attraction and repulsion to make blocks and platforms move around, in order to make a path to the exit.

(Important science note: Magrunner's implementation of magnetism is wrong. In Magrunner, similar polarities attract one another, and dissimilar polarities repel. Ultimately this makes more sense for the game's puzzles, since you sometimes have to attract a collection of more than two objects. But the fundamental disagreement with reality is still bothersome.)

Anyway. The Portal comparisons are all well and good for several levels, and then shit gets really fucking real. I don't think it's a spoiler that, within the game's first act, it rips off its sci-fi mask to reveal some dark and spooky Lovecraft business. I've still got plenty of game left to go, but so far it's using some great environment design and ambient sound to nail a creepy atmosphere.

Which is especially good since the dialog writing and voice acting isn't really keeping up. With the exception of one supporting character in particular, pretty much everyone in this story has really dumb lines and a really hammy actor spouting them out. Parts of the plot are also a little weird, and not, like, R'lyeh weird -- just. Well, for example, one of the supporting characters is a clear satire of Mark Zuckerberg (his name is even an anagram of Zuckerberg's). It's a bit ... out of place.

But the atmosphere, and the rapidly-increasing puzzle complexity, are keeping Magrunner interesting regardless. I'm suitably anxious to delve deeper into this hard sci-fi nightmare.

Progress: Finished Act I