You're dropped in a barren, alien world with no real idea of what's going on, but as you explore and interact with the strange world around you, you begin to return music and colour to the world and bring it back to life. The soundscape builds around you, taking your own solutions and weaving them into the music of the world.

FRACT is a game that gives you a brief starting tutorial that is completely free of explanatory text. Not only that, the environment is altogether alien and bewildering, and suddenly animated at unpredictable times. Once you've completed the tutorial, the game throws you headfirst into the world without any further hand-holding.

And this is what's so fantastic about FRACT: It's full of secrets and amazing places and things for you to discover. But half the fun of unwrapping a gift is the surprise of opening it, and FRACT doesn't try and unwrap the player's gift for them like an excited younger sibling, it lets you pull every strip apart, revealing the glowing, pulsating melody beneath. It lets you piece together an understanding of how the world comes together and what makes it tick. The puzzles themselves are of increasing difficulty, but they shouldn't pose too much of a challenge once you understand how the game and the world works. And that's where the other half of unwrapping the gift comes in: You get the gift itself.

Solving a puzzle in FRACT after you've worked out the underlying system is satisfying, but it's made even more satisfying by the immediate increase in the layers of sound in the soundscape around you, as the tones you've been making the world make suddenly snap into tune and a swell of harmonies follows right behind. Feeling smart and being rewarded with the music becoming more awesome is a very pleasing reward mechanism, and the game continues it throughout. The world itself is surprisingly large, deliberate, and cohesive. There's a story here, waiting to be told in the silent (and musical) ruins. There are little nooks and corners that seem to serve no good purpose except to be a neat little place for you to find. There are side music puzzles that have no bearing on the game progression, and are merely musical toys for you to discover and play with.

No game is perfect, and FRACT is no different. Some of the puzzles require you to notice and intuit the relationship between things that are not the most obvious even with time and exposure to the puzzle. However, in a game that relies on understanding the subtle environmental clues to solve puzzles, if someone is stuck, it's as likely that in their haste to jump into solving the puzzle they've missed some small but important detail needed to guide themselves towards the solution. A moment's pause and a step back is often the kick that breaks the log jam. Failure in experimentation is inconsequential; at worst, you fall off a platform or have to backtrack slightly, and it's not long before you're right back to where you were, able to progress.

FRACT contains one final gift, even after you've solved the last puzzle, enjoyed the victory spectacle, and seen the credits, and that's the Studio. As you progress through the game, all the way up to the last puzzle, you unlock portions of the very real synthesizers in the player composition facility in a separate, quieter portion of the world. For the impatient, there's the ability to unlock the whole Studio immediately, without needing to finish the game. The synthesizer modulation settings work exactly like they do in-game (not counting the advanced synthesizer options that unlock last), so FRACT in effect teaches the player how to make music.

It's too early to tell still, but FRACT OSC may be my favourite game of 2014. It's going to take something pretty special to beat the high standard FRACT's set.

You're dropped in a barren, alien world with no real idea of what's going on, but as you explore and interact with the strange world around you, you begin to return music and colour to the world and bring it back to life. The soundscape builds around you, taking your own solutions and weaving them into the music of the world. FRACT is a game that gives you a brief starting tutorial that is completely free of explanatory text. Not only that, the environment is altogether alien and bewildering, and suddenly animated at unpredictable times. Once you've completed the tutorial, the game throws you headfirst into the world without any further hand-holding. And this is what's so fantastic about FRACT: It's full of secrets and amazing places and things for you to discover. But half the fun of unwrapping a gift is the surprise of opening it, and FRACT doesn't try and unwrap the player's gift for them like an excited younger sibling, it lets you pull every strip apart, revealing the glowing, pulsating melody beneath. It lets you piece together an understanding of how the world comes together and what makes it tick. The puzzles themselves are of increasing difficulty, but they shouldn't pose too much of a challenge once you understand how the game and the world works. And that's where the other half of unwrapping the gift comes in: You get the gift itself. Solving a puzzle in FRACT after you've worked out the underlying system is satisfying, but it's made even more satisfying by the immediate increase in the layers of sound in the soundscape around you, as the tones you've been making the world make suddenly snap into tune and a swell of harmonies follows right behind. Feeling smart and being rewarded with the music becoming more awesome is a very pleasing reward mechanism, and the game continues it throughout. The world itself is surprisingly large, deliberate, and cohesive. There's a story here, waiting to be told in the silent (and musical) ruins. There are little nooks and corners that seem to serve no good purpose except to be a neat little place for you to find. There are side music puzzles that have no bearing on the game progression, and are merely musical toys for you to discover and play with. No game is perfect, and FRACT is no different. Some of the puzzles require you to notice and intuit the relationship between things that are not the most obvious even with time and exposure to the puzzle. However, in a game that relies on understanding the subtle environmental clues to solve puzzles, if someone is stuck, it's as likely that in their haste to jump into solving the puzzle they've missed some small but important detail needed to guide themselves towards the solution. A moment's pause and a step back is often the kick that breaks the log jam. Failure in experimentation is inconsequential; at worst, you fall off a platform or have to backtrack slightly, and it's not long before you're right back to where you were, able to progress. FRACT contains one final gift, even after you've solved the last puzzle, enjoyed the victory spectacle, and seen the credits, and that's the Studio. As you progress through the game, all the way up to the last puzzle, you unlock portions of the very real synthesizers in the player composition facility in a separate, quieter portion of the world. For the impatient, there's the ability to unlock the whole Studio immediately, without needing to finish the game. The synthesizer modulation settings work exactly like they do in-game (not counting the advanced synthesizer options that unlock last), so FRACT in effect teaches the player how to make music. It's too early to tell still, but FRACT OSC may be my favourite game of 2014. It's going to take something pretty special to beat the high standard FRACT's set.