Yerba Buena – portaling on Xbox, PlayStation, PC
There are puzzle video games that ask you to suppose outdoors the field. Then there’s Yerba Buena, which appears extra keen on letting you throw your complete field throughout the road, flip it invisible, and bounce off it like a trampoline.
Launching right now on Xbox Sequence X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC for £19.99, the newest launch from Focus Leisure and Mad About Pandas drops gamers right into a surreal model of Nineteen Seventies San Francisco, mixing platforming, environmental puzzles and reality-bending mechanics into one thing that already feels a little bit totally different from the norm.
And if the phrases ‘Portal vibes’ instantly spring to thoughts, you most likely received’t be alone.
At A Look
Sport: Yerba Buena
Developer: Mad About Pandas
Writer: Focus Leisure
Platforms: Xbox Sequence X|S, PlayStation 5, PC
Style: Puzzle Platformer
Worth: £19.99
Welcome To A Damaged Gameworld
Yerba Buena places gamers within the sneakers of Barb, a younger girl dwelling as an NPC inside an deserted online game world often known as Bay Angels. Issues shortly go sideways when a harmful glitch begins threatening the town round her, pushing Barb from background character into unlikely hero territory.
Serving to her alongside the way in which is a wierd system referred to as the Oscillator – and that is the place issues begin getting correctly bizarre.
Fairly than merely transferring objects round, the Oscillator permits gamers to repeat and paste the bodily properties of things all through the world. One second you could be giving a desk the bounce of a trampoline. The subsequent, you’re launching buildings via the air or turning stable partitions into one thing you possibly can merely stroll via.
A Puzzle Sport With Some Severe Persona
Whereas the gameplay hook is the plain attention-grabber, Yerba Buena additionally appears eager to go massive on ambiance and storytelling.
The Nineteen Seventies San Francisco setting provides the sport a particular id, whereas the entire ‘NPC trapped inside a forgotten gameworld’ premise provides thriller beneath all of the platforming and physics puzzles.
There’s additionally a barely playful tone – much less chilly sci-fi puzzler, extra vibrant glitchy journey with persona.
And given how closely puzzle video games have borrowed from Portal 2 over time, that’s most likely no dangerous factor. In reality, we beforehand frolicked explaining why Portal 2 could be the best recreation ever made, so something keen to channel even a little bit of that power instantly will get our consideration.
Can Yerba Buena Change into A Puzzle Favorite?
Puzzle-platformers dwell and die by the power of their central mechanic, however Yerba Buena actually appears to have discovered one able to carrying a complete journey. The concept of manipulating physics and motion properties on the fly feels ripe for intelligent degree design, inventive options and loads of participant experimentation.
We’ll discover out quickly sufficient whether or not Yerba Buena absolutely delivers on that potential, largely as we’re effectively on the overview practice, however for now, this appears like one of many extra intriguing puzzle video games to land on Xbox this 12 months. Choose up Yerba buena from the Xbox Retailer for £19.99. It’s additionally on the PlayStation Retailer and Steam.
