Clocker is an exhausting puzzle game that explores time and love

New Chinese indie game lets you solve puzzles by traveling in time

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You know what comes to mind? “Murph!” (Picture: Wild Kid Games)

Published: 7:09pm, 7 Mar 2019Updated: 2:02pm, 15 Jun 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Sometimes we just wish things would happen at the right time and in the right order. Side-scrolling puzzle game Clocker lets you do just that.

It’s a clever Chinese indie game where you pause time and rearrange the order of events to reunite a father and daughter. Launched on Steam after 2.5 years of crowdfunding, Clocker is full of time-bending puzzles that force you to ponder how one event leads to another, and how things -- in game or in real life -- could turn out very differently even if there was only a one-second delay.

You can delay or move forward actions of each character in the scene by turning your magical pocket watch. (Picture: Wild Kid Games)

While the father is looking for a way back to his daughter, he has to overcome obstacles and forge a clear path ahead. To do that, he uses his magical pocket watch. These puzzles are often quite challenging, stretching your analytic and creative thinking skills. Some require a lot of work because they span across multiple scenes. One of them, for instance, requires you to change the result of a soccer match by influencing what happens in a lab elsewhere.

This isn’t a game you can easily speed through in your first try. The difficulties mean it can be a frustrating experience at times, but also very rewarding when you’re finally able to solve the puzzles.

I’ll admit not all the puzzles in Clocker made sense to me. There are a few where the logic baffles me -- maybe it’s because my puny brain couldn’t understand it. Those became some of the most disheartening moments for me in the game.