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By turning the camera to connect the two edges…

Echochrome is a deceptively simple concept. The visual style and complete lack of gameplay give viewers the impression that the game is more straightforward than it is. But once the controller is in your hands, you will soon realize that the game, while not particularly deep, requires a lot more thinking than expected.

It is also the best boring game I’ve ever played.

The game, which consists exclusively of moving the camera, features a black and white color scheme, no textures, and a singular character (who is a hand-drawn version of an artist’s configurable wooden figurine) that walks at a snail’s pace across the sets of rectangular beams that constitute the five levels we are currently privy to on the PSN.

By wiggling the right analog stick the player moves the camera around to create new paths for the character to traverse, not by physically forming them, but in creating an optical illusion in a new perspective, which allows the walking figure to fall on to or jump to a new ledge, as well as carry on in a consistent path instead of a dead end.

It’s confusing to start and hard to visualize without seeing, but once you get the hang of the simple concept of rotating the camera to make the levels work for you, you’ll start learning tricks via the extensive and unobtrusive tutorial.

… You solve the puzzle and get this!

In creating a circling path by connecting two “L” shaped cartoon girders to make them look like they are connected, or blocking your view of splits/breaks in the path – which send the poor fellow to his plummeting doom – the avatar will continue to walk along the set road without falling. The objective is to ultimately lead your hand-drawn homie to the exit, and it makes for a satisfying experience when you succeed.

How you perceive the cleverly designed levels ultimately determines the outcome, which is an absolutely brilliant gameplay mechanic. It’s a simple notion and very artistic, but the game becomes increasingly difficult very quickly.

Unfortunately, using your eyes, a single thumb and the odd finger to play a game proves incredibly boring. If you’re stumped as to what to do, pausing character movement allows you to scope out the multi-story, hole-filled environment. Holding R1 allows the camera to swoop at an accelerated speed, and considering how painfully slow the default movement speed is, this will be something players will be doing often.

I’m still curious as to how stage designs will continue to be interesting. You can only make so many stages where your little dude drops down a level, jumps up and walks on new paths. Here’s hoping for more features than a hole and a trampoline, but the complexity of Echochrome is already pretty tough to grasp with the few features in it.

And this is about the point where my brain EXPLODES.

It depends on what you like in your boring, but brain-bending puzzle games. Are you a fan of racking your head by utilizing multiple things in a world, or would you rather play repetitious levels of already mind-teasing design?

Echochrome is not for everyone, and its dreary themes will have many puzzle fans runnin’ for the hills, but it’s great to see something that doesn’t involve dropping blocks in to each other.