Summertime Madness is a first-person puzzle game that has been out on several platforms for a while now. I had the pleasure to review this game for PS5. In Summertime Madness you play a painter in Prague during the second world war. To escape the madness of war-thorn reality, the painter makes a deal with the devil to escape into one of his paintings. The devil gives the painter six hours to escape the painting, or his soul will be trapped in his art for eternity.
Inside the painting, you will be faced with a surrealistic world in which you’ll have to solve a bunch of puzzles to reclaim your soul. The puzzles have vastly different mechanics and there’s no hand-holding at all, so you’re on your own in figuring out to get through. The devil really means business it seems. Due to the lack of instructions, things can get rather confusing and somewhat challenging from time to time. But hey, it’s a puzzle game.
The puzzles itself are fun, yet involve a lot of tedious running back and forth. This takes away some of the fun, because I ran around a maze for at least 10 minutes before I found one button (looking at you angrily, Neo-Prague…). The puzzles are generally nothing too spectacularly difficult, and I expect most people to be able to finish the game within about three hours.
The visuals are simply amazing and the world is a beautifully constructed piece of art that helps create the atmosphere it intends to set. The background music is calm and fits into the world well. The visuals and music combine into a blissful experience, which seems like the perfect choice to flee into if your city is being ravaged by war.
All in all, whilst I did have my fun with the puzzles, the strong point of this game isn’t its puzzles. I’d describe it as a puzzle game that isn’t very puzzling. This is a shame because I think the concept definitely had its potential. The game focuses too much on running around, puts in some confusing trinkets to collect, and becomes stale rather quickly. The world and the music on the other hand are fantastic and made the game feel like a relaxing stroll through a very strange park.
If you’re looking for a challenging puzzle game, this game isn’t for you. If you’re looking for a moderately challenging game, which is relaxing and pleases the senses, this game could be exactly what you look for.
