The Ball - PC

If you’re thinking that you’ve seen this indie game before, then you’re not too far off. The Ball started out as an entry in the Make Something Unreal contest and came out with a handful of awards. That was good enough for Tripwire to turn this first-person action puzzler in to its very own game by giving it a facelift and a few tweaks to the gameplay.

You start out as an archeologist on a dig who got a little too close to the pit. After meeting the bottom head first, you stumble across a device to control a mighty boulder by pushing it and pulling it towards you. Though things become quickly complicated, using your head and that massive rock can solve most of the puzzles in the game.

Much like another first-person puzzler, The Ball utilizes very simple concepts to create very complex puzzles and situations. In a matter of minutes, I was already finding hidden rooms, squashing enemies under my rock, and moving through chambers with relative ease. One of the smarter moves on the designer’s part was to make the rock transparent when rolling it forward. It helps you line up critical shots as well knowing where you’re going. Later levels add additional attributes to your rolling ball of destruction such as throwing out landmines. Look for The Ball to roll our way sometime later this year as a PC indie title.