With a title like Create, you are almost certain to lure any number of unsuspecting artistic and free-thinking gamers to their doom. Today, the term “doom” is being used a loose sense, referring to a moderately engaging experience that doesn’t quite deliver the lofty promise of its own name.
Create is built upon the freestyle, sandbox realm of games like LittleBigPlanet. The player assumes command of a number of trinkets in a realm of his choosing and one of his own design (sort of), which can be utilized to fulfill the arbitrary goals the game imposes upon him. The challenges progress at a reasonable pace, but the open-ended gameplay can be quite a slap in the face at times. This can be especially problematic for a title that boldly eschews the hand-holding tutorials that so many games rely upon these days.
Anyone who fancies giving Create a go will likely be familiar with the array of mechanical contraptions. Objects can be rolled, flipped, knocked about, and otherwise affected by the player’s clever manipulations of the physics engine. Fortunately, a freeplay mode is included, allowing your boundless imagination to run wild within the game’s considerable toolset.
Since these elements are technically prefabricated, it remains to be seen if players will actually feel as though they have created something. Solving puzzles with an anal level of precision might be a great rush for some, but when all is said and done, there is little permanence to the game. Similar titles at least give players the chance to keep something they’ve crafted, to show it off to others, but nothing seems to last quite so long in Create.
The friendly aural atmosphere and bright visual design may attract younger players, many of whom could be put off by the game’s inherent difficulty. Even among adults, the game is certainly a test of patience and perseverance. Create isn’t exactly what it calls itself, but it will get the job done for puzzle-heads looking for a quick fix.
