The Time Machine | Chapter 2: Continuum

High tech but the first room we had problem

I barely had time to nap, that’s how fast my parents got out of this room! Even though I wasn’t born when my parents did Chapter 1, I still followed along with Chapter 2’s plot (strapped to my mom); Dad does recommend playing back-to-back, though. I liked how well certain things were hidden, and all the tactile, unique props looked fun to manipulate if I only had the grip strength. The final room frustratingly only had one puzzle that could only really be worked on by two people, so mommy and I could only stand back and watch and fart (to be clear, I was the one farting—my mom is a true lady). I wish there was more to do, and I wish there were more time to play and nap, but my parents did have fun!

Don’t let the like fool you: This game is very special if you play it back-to-back with Chapter 1. Different elements of familiar game spaces are used to create new, novel interactions from the occasional familiar prop. Dynamic’s not just continuing the story, but rather, they’re evolving the play area. They solve the issue of having finite build areas in a deeply-creative way. The tech and set interactions are far more compelling than in Chapter 1, but the poor soul saddled with using another cipher to decode a message will miss out on several unique puzzles. The final act of this game is woefully short and offers a solitary puzzle that you’ll either love or hate (I personally loved it). To put it in perspective, Deja Vu took 50 minutes to solve, Secret Gallery took 59.5 minutes to solve, and Continuum took only 40 minutes. While it’s true that my group’s experience level is a contributing factor, the disparity between the solve times suggests there could be more done to offer bonus puzzles, variable difficulty, or other creative ways to push the creative use of space to its limits. All this said, how this game created a sequel within the same environment was jaw-dropping, and the final reveal was so freaking awesome.

We played Chapter 1 quite sometime ago and when playing this stand alone it was a bit lack luster. There was nothing new to the room, it was the same as chapter 1 only with less clues and direction. Little to no backstory made it feel like you were dropped in the middle, the rule about not forcing something if it takes more than 2 fingers of force caused a lot of wasted time while you looked for clues that weren’t there because you didn’t want to force something that wouldn’t open properly. The same can be said about some of the puzzles that didn’t operate without being reset … often after several minutes had passed while trying to figure out why it didn’t work. Overall very disappointing:(

Very interesting room that plays off the previous room. Couple hard puzzles but overall good room