These puzzles are too squishy.

Semblance does an impressive job of explaining its mechanics without explaining them -- like the infamous opening of Super Mario Bros., it places elements in such a way that you'll learn how the game works practically by accident.

And, those mechanics are both pleasantly simple and refreshingly inventive; it put a smile on my face when I realized that environment deformation could be used to "climb" sheer walls, by denting platforms into the side.

Unfortunately...

Actually solving Semblance's puzzles is less gratifying, because of the tweaky, fiddly imprecision of that deformable environment. Like World of Goo, or so many other physics-simulation platformers, it's way too easy to "almost" solve a puzzle -- but the ground is a few pixels too high, or the laser angle is a few degrees off, so you need to reset and try it again.

There also isn't any external motivation, no promise of narrative payoff for pushing forward. As far as I can tell, the story is "purple stuff got infected by green stuff." If my only reward for fidgeting together a puzzle solution is more puzzles, well, no thanks.

I really, really like Semblance's mechanical premise. It just needed to do more to keep me interested.

Progress: Collected some glowing purple things.