Playing A Game Prelogate PC

Like TIS-100, Prelogate was frequently infuriating to me because of how it's almost like real computer programming. Unlike TIS - and several other contemporaries - Prelogate suffered worse for this due to some unfortunate design flaws.

Prelogate is a curious combination of color-based mirror puzzles and signal-based logic puzzles. At its most clever, it up-ends binary logic problems with the additional dimensions of colors and color combinations -- plus organizing reflectors and gates in physical space. Some of its puzzles are pretty damned cool.

The limitation that really fucked with my head was the lack of negative logic gates. As all engineers know, NAND (or NOR) is super important; so solving logic puzzles without any negation construct - in a world where Karnaugh maps don't work! - got fairly fucking annoying. Especially puzzles based more on the management of physical space than on logical deduction, i.e. assuming I'd already figured out the magic logic algorithm and just had to move mirrors around to make it work.

Unfortunately, my fury toward these puzzles was made even worse by two discrete problems with Prelogate's sense of pacing. The first is that, aside from tutorials that cover basic color combinations and logic gates, there is no ramp-up in puzzle difficulty. The game's ten chapters generally each focus on entirely unique challenges, such as color versus boolean logic versus spatial solving, and most of the game makes no effort to educate you about a puzzle's fundamental challenges before you run headlong into them.

The second problem is a simpler but even more damaging one: Prelogate's levels must be unlocked sequentially. Most puzzle games have either optional puzzles that can be skipped, or a point system that allows the player to skip some puzzles at their discretion. But you can't progress at all in Prelogate until you complete each puzzle, in order. When a frustrating puzzle blocks your progress, it may as well be game over.

Prelogate has some solid content to enjoy, but an equal amount of frustration to muddle through to get there. That the game makes so little effort in easing the player into this frustrating content makes it all the more disappointing.

Better than: Lyne
Not as good as: Human Resource Machine, TIS-100
I'll never forgive it: For "making" me cheat on the last few puzzles, 'cause I didn't have enough patience to guess the right logic algorithms. It's the game's fault for breaking Karnaugh maps! God damn it!

Progress: Finished all puzzles.

Rating: Meh