Samsara (2018)

Samsara for PC and XONE is a logic game created by Marker Limited, which is a small company that produces various applications – among them, one will find programs for booking flight tickets, as well as more or less advanced video games for example. Samsara is the largest game developed by the company so far.

Mechanics

The player's task is to help a girl by the name of Zee to escape the titular Samsara, which is a strange world she has been trapped in. In order to achieve this, the player has to beat nearly 80 levels requiring them to place different objects on small maps – doing so, the player creates a path, by which the girl can reach a magic portal. However, the game world is divided into two different parts. The lower part of the screen reflects Samsara's dark side, where a mysterious shadow imitates Zee's movements – the shadow has to reach its own portal as well. The difficulty level gets quickly increased on subsequent maps, so it will not suffice to place particular platforms simply to fill holes with them or to build stairs. Alongside progression, new mechanics appear in the game, and for instance, one has to use smaller portals to reach the other part of the screen; one also needs to take into account, that if they place a platform in the lower world, the object will have its reflection in the upper dimension as well. The maps are very diverse and are based on various concepts. Sometimes one has to take advantage of gravity or add a block at a right time. Thanks to that, the experience remains alluring and surprising throughout the entire game.