Circulous is an episodic puzzle game with a spiralling story and cunning puzzles
Chain Reaction Games (The Company) are back with their next corporate subterfuge title, Circulous, which launches next month. We've been talking with the studio about the upcoming puzzle game, its sweeping story, and the game's world.
You might well have heard of Chain Reaction Games due to the prestige of founder Brayden Gogis, who was featured in Apple's Meet The Developer feature back when he was 16. But unlike his most popular title, which plays out as a series of snappy, escape-room style puzzles, Circulous plays out as a first-person puzzler, with you solving puzzles and using your in-game phone to figure out the mysteries of the game world.
Where The Company plainly stated the sinister intent behind its namesake, Circulous' namesake are a company which rapidly end up as your employer - with you joining their cyber-security team. As you can probably imagine, in a world full of corporate espionage where money and secrets are power, it definitely becomes very hard to know who to trust very early on.
Perhaps most interesting of all of this though is the fact that the game is episodic, with thirteen chapters included in the $3.99 price-point, albeit delivered over an extended period. We've seen episodic content tried before, and if done correctly it can create suspense and excitement around future instalments. While we're not at liberty to discuss the full thirteen-part story arc, we can exclusively share that there's plenty of twists and turns, and while the story starts with investigations into game-development companies, art galleries and even local hospitals, things really start to ramp up as hackers continue to try to blur your reality.
If you're not entirely sure about dipping into another puzzle game then rest assured, there's also a robust hint system in there, and the game will even offer solutions to you if you're too stuck on a puzzle. Personally, though, the real appeal for me was the use of the in-game phone. I'm a big sucker for games which use other devices inside them - like Jagged Alliance 2's laptop, or The Blackwell Series' phones and notebooks - and this is one of the best implemented ones I've seen.
Circulous will release on iOS on August 13th. It's a premium title priced at $3.99.
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