Basically put, FRACT is a musical exploration game. You arrive in a forgotten place and explore the unfamiliar landscape to discover the secrets of an abandoned world that was once built on sound. As you start to make sense of this strange new environment, you work to rebuild its machinery by solving puzzles and bringing the world back to life by shaping sound and creating music in the game.
In this game, you have three different puzzle areas which you need to solve in order to receive more samples to work within your FRACT studio, where you can create your own music using some great techniques preferred by many well known synthetic composers. Sounds simple enough right? Well it is. Even though the puzzles look complicated when you first look at them, it is only once you actually start solving them that you figure out that they are both logical and straightforward. That in my opinion is one of the best things about the puzzles here. For example, just like the Portal series, the puzzles are cleverly designed so that it has a good balance between challenge and difficulty, making you feel satisfied each time you fix machinery, or basically put, solve a puzzle.
Furthermore, the puzzles are pretty much the environment around you, that is in equal parts beautiful and crisp, with light streaks running through dark graphite looking structures, reminiscent of Tron. It is really noteworthy how everything works and moves, when you control them via puzzles.
You really get the sense that the developers have worked hard and tried their best to make sure each movement, and machinery feels as authentic as possible. Also, the animations are amazing for some structures, like the travelling hotspots you come across. As you enter a hotspot, the shield around it slowly goes down and the inner mechanics are shown, it is pretty fantastic in action as you are being transported through these circular hoops that expand around you and thrust you forward to the next one.
The amazing animations for each structure are well accompanied by the solid User Interface design, and their excellent implementation. Basically, the UI to control different machinery or objects won’t be visible to the naked eye, and you have to instead press on the right mouse button to view the control menu once you are near a device. Each control menu works out differently, where you have to either twist the knobs, bring a square level up and down like you would the volume on your computer, or just press buttons, where due to its slickness it feels thoroughly satisfying to play around with the clean UI. Think along the lines of Tony Stark controlling his equipment in Iron Man with those 3D huds.
The game’s main fuel however is the music. There are no sound-effects here just music. Each object has a different musical signature that plays a different tune depending on whether you turn it off, on or just approach it. Usually it sounds great when the puzzles come together, but with so many sounds going on all around you, all distinct, it does feel like it lacks a clear direction at times. Still, once everything really fits in place, the music really kicks off and sounds absolutely great. So there is no bad sampling, or mixing here and every sound has been treated crystal clear.
Coming back to the FRACT studio, which I mentioned before, it is the main pillar of the game’s world. As I said, there are three different types of areas that each unlocks different synthesizers. The areas are for, Bass, Lead and Pad synthesizers, and contain unique puzzle structures for each. So, every time you do complete each one, you get something more to play within your studio, which you can effectively use to create your own music. Now, since I love making music anyhow, this is an absolute treat where I can get sunk in for a while. However, I am not sure it will make much sense other than random patterns to most mainstream gamers. I will advise you to really get familiar with it, as it is damn well powerful.
Overall, FRACT OSC is a pleasant experience, one that is easy to get lost in especially due to the sharp mixture of good looking environments, powerful sounding music, and effective UI design. I still think it is slightly lacking when it comes to the ambiance though. Anyways, if you love puzzle games, be sure to give this a go, as it is one of a kind.
