I'd played a demo of this game before, and wasn't all that impressed. I've always been somewhat bothered by games that sacrificed tight controls for smoother movement, such as the original Prince of Persia games. It's not a killing factor, mind you, as I very much enjoyed the original Prince of Persia (wasn't much a fan of the second) and the PS1 Oddworld games and some others that I can't think of off the top of my head. But I had some cash and it was only ten bucks, so I decided to give it a shot.
Anyway, after playing it for a bit... this is how puzzles in video games should be. They actually make you think. They're more than, "Use item A to get past barrier B," or, "Move this block to a switch on the other end of the room," or things like that. You're given a clearly defined set of rules and told to complete some levels based on these rules. Sometimes you have to dick around for a bit before you can figure it out, but the moment it clicks and you realize exactly what you need to do, that's a great feeling that you just don't get enough from games these days.
The people who design the puzzles in Zelda, God of War, Prince of Persia, really any game that has puzzles that could be even vaguely comparable to these, need to play this game and take notes. Very rarely have I encountered the same kind of, "Oh, I get it!" moments in other games that I encounter in nearly every level of Exit. And the few times that has happened, it's typically from something like seeing a switch that I didn't see before, not from actually figuring out a puzzle.
I've gotten over the controls for the most part, but I still have issues with the running jump. Sometimes I'll jump too early early and barely grab the ledge and lose time, or miss it completely and have to start over, and sometimes I'll press it too late and just run straight off the edge.
On a more negative note, I have to say that this game has the most annoying NPCs ever by far. Each one has a total of like two lines to randomly shout ever two seconds. Hearing someone complain that they need a shower twenty times in a row made me turn the sound off when I play the game. And they're so stupid. I hate having to lead them over to the base of some stairs, then lead them to the top of the stairs, then lead them where I want them to go, instead of just telling them to go pick up the damn pickaxe on the second level.
Overall though, it's a great game that I think deserves some loving. If you have a PSP, check it out. And I hear it's on XBLA, too?
