Carcophony is a stellar puzzle game that's innovative, strong aesthetically, and addictive. Don't miss it!
9.0
Superb puzzle game with 5 well-designed and challenging levels to unlock
Clean and bright interface with useful menu options
Excellent audio-visual presentation
Great replay value with lots of staying power due to challenging nature of the game
Online leaderboards would really accentuate performative play
Limited available levels to play with no level-design tool-set
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*EDIT: It has come to my attention that online leaderboards are not available on XBIG games (or at least weren't when Carcophony was released). Due to that factor, let me parse my comments on the subject by noting that having a service that would allow for online leaderboards would really accentuate play.
Carcophony was released 10.29.09 by GLPeas (also responsible for the accoladed recent release BlindGiRl) to strong reviews from critics but modest player reviews on XBIG (currently 3.5/5 stars). While this may not be so surprising given the vast number of puzzle games on XBIG, where it's easy to get lost in the shuffle, players looking for a well-crafted, innovative, and challenging puzzle game will have missed out if they glanced over this title because of the bland cover-art.
For anyone who's ever been stuck downtown in a large city during rush hour, wondering why traffic isn't moving very effectively, it's likely because there's no sentient being above the fray directing it all - at least, that's what I think after having played Carcophony. As the title suggests, Carcophony is a puzzle game where you direct incoming traffic flows of cars in four different colors to their properly same-colored destinations. While its easy to change car colors from the very useful options menu (a nice bonus) the starting primary colors are easily distinguishable, which is very helpful in later stages of any level when its jammed with traffic. Every level has a number of traffic intersections located at the car-entry points, as well as at crossing intersections on the interior or each map. As anyone who went to driver's ed will know, cars will only proceed forward (or turn left or right) when a green light is facing them. Unlike most real traffic lights, however, these intersections can only point green in one cardinal direction at a time. The challenge is, then, to direct traffic around the map such that you avoid congestion as much as possible, pile up points towards your overall score by moving cars to their appropriate destination (grabbing bonus points for how quick you get them there based on the stage of any map), and to avoid letting 10 cars pile up at any entry point. The game (inevitably) ends when eventually you're so backed up that cars trying to enter from any point pile up to 10 in one location. Each map gets progressively more difficult as you pass from stage to stage, however. From time to time, an ambulance will appear in sync with a H designation (for hospital) at a certain entry/exit. Successfully navigating the ambulance through to the hospital triggers the next stage of a game, which means more points can be earned but, of course, greater increase in the number of cars trying to enter the map. It's simple yet addictive.
What makes Carcophony a superior puzzle game, however, is the depth of gameplay despite its initial simplistic appearance. When one first starts playing, one tends to focus on each intersection separately, waiting for cars to pile up and then directing them through, while making sure the entry points are cleared regularly. It's a basic strategy which works for the beginning stages of any given map, but isn't enough to get you to the top of the (local only) leaderboard. Carcophony's challenge comes into full effect when the player starts to see each map as a whole, which becomes not only helpful but necessary in later stages of each level as well as through the entirety the final few maps. With massive incoming traffic and severly-complex grids, strategy requires you move a set of cars across the map through to the destination all at once (quickly!) using multiple traffic intersections to get them there. And as soon as you do, you're off to the next set of cars to duplicate your efforts repeatedly. Carcophony therefore accomplishes what any great puzzle game ought to: a sense of needing to see the big picture while quickly accomplishing specific tasks to get you there. In other words, like succeeding in the later stages of Tetris, you must enter the "zone". Since success is always finite (again like Tetris, you will eventually fail), the strong sense of performance needed to succeed makes Carcophony a zen-like practice in staying above the frenetic cacophony of it all. That's why it's rather mind boggling that leaderboards are local only (despite there actually being a, albeit nonworking, online leaderboard). While there are co-op and vs modes, thankfully, this is exactly the sort of game you'd like to show off your high skills and scores on, and its a shame that no one else will be privy to your glorious accomplishments.
In terms of presentation, Carcophony is once again spot on. The cool green background is a perfect backdrop for the dizzying array of cars you'll have on your hands. The ability to choose your own four car colors is a wonderful gift to players too, especially in a game where being able to quickly size up the screen is crucial. Sound is well incorporated as well. Thankfully, instead of a rip-roaring soundrack, you get a minimalist approach that stresses ambulance noise, pulse-sounds from dangerously build-ups at entry points, and other signals which help you navigate the game. The use of sound to assist the player in critical times is a perfect choice, and represents a departure from what, in the hands of amatures, would likely have muddled the game. Carcophony doesn't sound like random noise, however, and all the sounds are integrated quite well and lack the sort of piercing quality you might expect from a game involving cars and backed up traffic. The limited camera movement is well-incorporated too, zooming in in later stages as specific road-sections are eliminated, which complements the challenge of the maps rotating clockwise faster and faster as you progress (making it more difficult to remember where the red exit is, for instance). Also, as noted, the menu options are all very useful and user friendly, allowing you to customize not only car color but how you see your growing point totals. In fact, just about every sense of interface and level presentation is so well thought out, as either helpful to the player or obstructive providing challenge, that it's hard to imagine where and how any of it could've been improved, since it accomplishes incredibly important practical purposes on top of being aesthetically pleasing to engage with.
The drawbacks to Carcophony are few in comparison, though not without mention. As noted, the lack of online leaderboards is a severe drawback for a game that so heavily emphasizes performance. In addition to that, though this might be holding Carcophony to unfair standards, a tool-set to design player-created maps would've really elevated this already superb game. Since there's only 5 maps to play on (the later 4 challenging in their own right for sure) more maps would've been welcome, and since each of the maps are fairly basic, it would've been interesting to see (incorporated with an active online community) what other's have created and top scores on those boards too. Does Carcophony need this additional content to be worth buying? Absolutely not. However, I think it would've helped to create more buzz around the game, and give Carcophony an even more replay value from an already very worthwhile game.
In sum, Carcophony is an excellent puzzle game that achieves depth of play from a simple yet refined approach, and that elicits the sort of addicting play that the puzzle greats have before it. With so much fluff and copy-cat puzzlers on XBIG, it's a shame that Carcophony didn't turn more heads when it was released, but now that you've read my review, you have no excuse but to download the trial right before buying this game for a steal at 240 MS points on XBIG.