Ever since the wonderful Portal showed us exactly how puzzle platformers should be done, the test chamber scenario has been explored rather frequently by indie developers, both in 2D and 3D environments, with simple, monotone rooms to navigate and/or a sinister voice directing your journey. The Ball has neither of these features, and yet could well be the greatest Portal-like experience we’ve partaken in since Valve’s epic released.

Of course, there are rather major differences between the two – swap the test chambers for the innards of a dormant volcano, and swap the portal manipulation for a rolling ball of death – but the moments of pure jubilation and that wonderful feeling of progression via the power of your noggin make this a wholly worthwhile purchase. Enemies can become a little tedious later on, but fortunately there’s far more head-scratching involved than steamrolling.

GAMEPLAY

Armed with an odd push’n pull device, your objective is always the same – move a huge rolling ball around a series of rooms and caverns, opening the pathway to further areas. Initially puzzles are simple cases of pushing the ball onto buttons, or rolling in along narrow walkways. Holding left click and releasing fires the ball off in a straight line, while keeping the right mouse button held down will drag it towards you and keep it close at hand.

Puzzles don’t stay tame for long, however, and within the hour you’ll find yourself smiling as each room’s solution becomes apparent. Nothing ever really gets too difficult, and we breezed through the game without a single hitch, yet there’s something so charming and clever about each solution that you most likely won’t notice.

Manipulating the ball always feels so effortless, which is key to why the game feels so great to play. Feeling fully in control is important, and The Ball is fully aware of this – in fact, it plays on the idea by messing with you too. In certain areas you’ll suddenly lose the ball, or watch as it moves rapidly away from you.

In that moment, you suddenly feel a huge sense of worry and it becomes your number one priority to get it back again. It’s not actually possible to lose the ball (or at least we didn’t manage to!), but the idea that you may never see it again is enough to make you panic. You could argue that this element makes The Ball even greater than Portal a certain light – imagine taking a Companion Cube all the way through Portal, and you get a rough idea of your relationship with the ball.

Later on in the game, enemies are introduced. You cannot attack these directly, but must use your trusty spherical friend to roll over their undead bodies. The number of different methods for killing is brilliant - push the ball into them and blood splatters, or allow them to run between you and your companion and reel in it. You can also use your surroundings as well, like spike pits and arrow traps.

Enemies are both great fun and rather chilling additions to begin with, but eventually become a little tiresome when the numbers start to ramp up. Getting hit delivers a fair amount of damage, and it can be a while before you find a place to regain health. We would have rather seen less enemies and more lovely puzzles, but these sections are definitely not game-breakers.

Apart from the main story mode, you’ve also got a survival game in which enemies attack in waves, and you must roll all over their undead asses. As you can guess from our lukewarm response to the baddie overload, this wasn’t a favourite mode of ours, although it’s still nice to see it included. If you don’t mind the enemies as much as we did, you could easily find yourself playing this over and over for the highest score possible.

STYLE

The Ball is staggeringly gorgeous, attaining such an incredibly claustrophobic atmosphere. One moment you’ll be pushing the ball through tight compacted corridors, the next a doorway is opening out into a huge cavern filled with ancient artifacts and intrigue. Not a single pixel is every out of place, and the attention to detail is sometimes far past what you’d expect from a smaller team like Tripwire.

There’s also a huge scare factor involved too. Early on you’ll hear chilling noises but nothing too scary – then the zombies are introduced. The way they pelt towards you will genuinely get your adrenaline pumping, and eventually you’ll approach each new room with a great deal of caution.

Perhaps the only aspect that could be improved on is the lack of variation in environments. For the most part, you’re walking through chambers and caverns that all looks very similar to one another. Far later into the game you’ll find some interesting new scenery, but for the first few hours at least it’s all a bit samey.

STORY

A team of archaeologists are doing their business on the side of a dormant volcano in Mexico when the floor caves in, and one unlucky sod falls into the cavern below. His colleagues tell him to wait while they get help, but his curiosity gets the better of him and he ventures into the depths of the volcano.

After discovering a strange mechanical device on a pedestal, it’s not long until he finds a huge ball decorated with strange symbols. Putting 2 and 2 together, he uses the device with the ball, and the puzzling commences.

We honestly can’t think of a better story to wrap around ‘move ball with gun’, and the mysterious setting adds tons of depth and personality to the concept. Tripwire could have easily gone with a more Portal style approach, but instead risked a rather ‘out there’ underground ruins setting, and has definitely been rewarded for its effort.

OTHER

The Ball is something you must experience. It’s effortlessly clever stuff, marred only by frustrating enemy rushes late into the game. Puzzle design is always solid, and there’s more than enough entertainment to keep the average gamer happy for several hours and beyond.

As if making your mind up wasn’t already simple enough, the $20 price point is more than reasonable. The Ball is sure to be one of the underground hits (excuse the pun) of the year.

The Ball on Steam