The Given

is The Given truly a given? that depends. most of us have enjoyed the run and gun action, the slaughterfests, the semi-puzzler maps, not often does someone come along and make a monsterless puzzle map, and even less often does one make a map so engrossed in puzzles but in a Myst-like fashion. that's the vibe you get with The Given, the sentiment of never dying, but having to figure out several puzzles. and it could take ages; those who are definitely not accustomed to dobu's mapping style, or even those who are will be in for a puzzler.

basically around the pupil, you have six puzzles to solve, one involves some color-coded bars rising and lowering based off of which nearby gates to enter. another is a maze, where a mock variant nearby tells you which particular squares should be crossed and which to avoid else you have to restart. the "arrows" puzzle is somewhat innovative, looking deep for clues to uncover the next arrow to reach the switch, it's probably the hardest. the gravestones puzzle is all about stair crafting but can be incessantly tricky and likely the second hardest. the puzzle in the castle with rising and lowering blocks via switches is another hard one to solve. the multi-switch islands, there is ONE SUBTLE CLUE but it's in a different area that's supposedly a mock representation, or you can just trial and error it. the middle puzzle after you solve those, it's more gate crossing but is a bit more trial and error in that case depending on which you pass through before the rather appropriate ending.

it's certainly strange, but is one of dobu's better offerings since you don't have to deal with too many moving parts nor is anything out to kill you or make you wring your hair in frustration.

I dunno what rating to give this seeing as I didn't accomplish anything in the map. I found some switches and figured as much as

The map has nice flow and I appreciated that it was easy to get from one area to another in the map. Getting stuck was never a problem. That helped keep me on the map even though the puzzles were quite difficult. I probably would have spent more time in the map if the lag wasn't so frustrating and if movement agility hadn't proved to be a necessary skill in the map. It seems the ability to jump from one area to another might be important and with the lag that kicks in suddenly this was quite aggravating. Anyway, I may give this another go as the city in a cavern thing is pretty well done here.

An absolutely gigantic, stunningly realized surreal puzzle map, The Given places you in a kind of dreamlike medieval village deep in a gigantic cavern.  You're tasked with finding and hitting a selection of switches, to reveal.... something that unfortunately I never discovered.

I don't know if I just wasn't in the right mood or just don't have the brain for this kind of thing, but I stumbled around aimlessly for about an hour before giving up.  The puzzles are indicated by red torches, but while locating three or four torches, I only successfully found a single area that was clearly a puzzle.  In the end I resorted to noclipping around and did manage to find another puzzle, but upon realizing what it entailed (memorizing a route through a maze, then mirroring the route in your head so you can re-follow it in a reversed version of the maze made up of invisible teleport lines) I concluded that while it wasn't impossible (with paper, a pen, and lot of trial and error) it just didn't seem like much fun.  But if that sounds like something that really appeals to you though, this map is for you.

However, the map itself is genuinely an absolutely incredible work of art, and simply enjoying the music and the atmosphere is well worth your time.  I'll try coming back it another time, perhaps when I'm feeling more cerebral, but for now it's a solid 5 with a point docked for being just that bit too unfathomable.

If you have slaughtered enough demons and need a break with a nice puzzle, then this map was made exactly for you.

In general, if you love mysterious enviroments and puzzles, then I'm sure you won't be disappointed with this map. Some of the puzles will be easy and some of them will be more difficult, I think it depends on what kind of person you are, but they all are solveable.

The author also uses build-in hints so that you don't end up running around like a headless chicken. which is usually the case with "hard" puzzles and riddles (sorry for the rant, but I really hate some puzzles and riddles, although I used to love of them back in time). The music and the architecture of the map go together well, it creates a mysterious and calm atmosphere alltogether.