The loops, like the blocks, are tools to help me escape, to interact with the environment and solve puzzles. Manifold Garden invokes a sense of anxiety within me, like a dream I’ve always had and never understood: I’m chasing something through a looping forest, but whatever I’m following - I never know what it is - remains just out of reach.īut the truth of that these environments don’t go on forever. Just when I think I’ve grasped the logic of the world, something changes - my perspective shifts - and the uneasiness of infinity settles in again. Anyone who enjoyed Portal or Portal 2 may have some understanding of the sort of thinking required to solve Manifold Garden’s puzzles.Įarly puzzles are meant to teach me the way the garden works more than challenge me, but puzzles become more complex as Manifold Garden opens up. But it’s not as simple as picking up the block and moving it to its gate blocks are locked to their respective color planes, and I must manipulate gravity to get it where it needs to go. Elsewhere, there’s a door to unlock, powered by a receptacle where I’m to plug in the correctly colored block. The objective is often immediately clear when entering an area: I see the trees, growing their blocks. The blocks are each associated with a color, depending on what tree they’re pulled from. Blocks grow like apples from geometric trees dotted across the world, and it’s these blocks that are the keys to the world. Manifold Garden isn’t a garden in the traditional sense. The game can be finished in up to six hours, although time starts to have less meaning the more you dig in. I learn more about the world and its story with each new garden I reach, although the specifics are often more implied than explicitly explained. Doing so rids the world of an implied corruption that’s taking over, represented by dark clouds that obscure parts of Manifold Garden’s geometry. And I mean this in a literal sense: With a click, the wall becomes the floor and a new world opens up to explore.įrom there, I continue to play with gravity to solve the game’s puzzles. I have to shift perspective by activating a different plane, which changes my view. My expectations of how things are supposed to work are broken down by the game’s mechanics.

Ground 46.Your browser does not support HTML5 video.

Level 32 - 'Forest of the Skeleton Queen'.

Level 20 - 'Warehouse' (This article is under rewrite).

Level 9.1 - 'Can we pretend that a meteor destroyed the Crimson Forest?'.

Level 8 - 'Cave System' (This article is under rewrite).Level 7.2 - 'The Titanic Titanic' (This article is under rewrite).Level 5.1 - 'GRAND OPENING OF THE TERROR HOTEL CASINO'.Level 4.2 - 'Parking Lot Of Fog' (This article is under rewrite).Level 4 - 'Abandoned Office' (This article is under rewrite).Level 2.2 - 'Constant Buzz' (This article is under rewrite).If you have eyewitness documentation of any of these levels, please contribute your findings to the database! Levels denoted with have not yet been sufficiently catalogued. An important tip to remember is that levels are occasionally prone to instability keeping this in mind, documentation of any level is subject to change without warning. Rooms and sub-levels are both often referred to as sub-layers.Įntrances and exits to each level are catalogued to the best of our ability, as making a hasty retreat is often necessary. Usually, they are places in an existing level, but that is not always the case. They may also contain rooms locations that are too small to be considered their own level. Levels often contain sub-levels levels that are related to their parent level, but are still their own distinct level. The laws of physics and nature as we know them cannot be relied on in the depths of the Backrooms nevertheless, some of the more hospitable and stable levels are home to thriving communities, and some inhabitants have managed to survive in even the most dangerous levels. Typical levels-for whatever value of 'typical' can be expected from the Backrooms-tend to be infinite in size (though 'bounded' levels are not unheard of), and often provoke a feeling of uncanny familiarity to those happening upon them.

… normal levels form the framework of the Backrooms, and vary greatly in size, danger, and habitability.

Manifold garden looping