By now it should be well known that I like point&click adventures. These games often have one thing in common: you have to solve simple problems by in the most bizarre and cumbersome ways, misusing and combining a lot of things, just because you miss one piece of the puzzle. Last Saturday’s game does that differently; you can find out exactly how here.

We played the first part of Physicus ages ago. Short recap: a meteorite hit a small planet and stopped its rotation. Using a gigantic slingshot and the principle of conservation of momentum, we were supposed to restore the spin and save the planet. We mastered that with flying colors back then.

Three years later we are again asked for help. This time we have to take care of the story ourselves, we don’t know exactly what happened or what the end goal is. What we do know is that we again have a device that will give us the education we need to achieve our goals in the most important subjects (at the level of grades 6-8, I estimate). The mechanisms on this island, even the doors, can only be used with basic physics training.

At this point I have to admit that I have a rather transfigured view of things. I loved Physicus the first time I played it; also because I love physics. The puzzles themselves weren’t hard (at least for me, who had a physics major), weren’t ingeniously convoluted, or in any way misleading. It was always relatively clear which result was achieved with what. Therefore, it cannot keep up with other classics such as Runaway in this discipline.

It’s just a playful approach to bringing young people closer to physics. This is done in a much less embarrassing way than is attempted in school, so there are definitely pluses here. And I really enjoyed the brain jogging and the repetition of some topics.

All in all I liked the game. You can tell its age (release was 2003), it still runs quite stable and only had one noticeable bug – a lens was displayed several times, but then disappeared after a single use. It had taken me a few minutes to get it right. It was a nice pastime for an afternoon.

Mechanically I have nothing to complain about. Classic Point&Click, runs with QuickTime on practically every system – no longer up-to-date, but definitely functional. The only criticism I have is the story, because I didn’t understand it yet. You somehow rescue an alien who is being held captive and tortured there by the people who asked for our help; very strange.

I’m definitely looking forward to the next games in this series. In addition to Physicus, which we’re done with now, there’s Mathica, Geographicus, and Chemicus to come. Let’s stay tuned! Until then, let’s talk about the game on Discord: what did you like, what didn’t, what was your overall impression? Let me know!