Patrick’s Parabox review for PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

The real test of any puzzle game comes not when you’re playing it, but when you’re doing anything other than playing it. Call it the Tetris effect, or the Portal test, or whatever else you want: when a puzzle game seeps into your subconscious mind and you start thinking about solutions even when you’re not playing it, that’s how you know it’s good.

By that standard, Patrick’s Parabox is pretty darn good. It’s built around a basic idea: you move boxes to set points within a larger box, and then you move yourself – also a box – to the last space, and you’re set. The concept is as simple as they come, but the 350+ levels here show that within that idea, there are multitudes of other ideas.

At first it doesn’t seem so difficult or complex – it’s literally just moving boxes in a few directions, and then it’s off to the next level. But, slowly and surely, Patrick’s Parabox introduces new rules that make it get harder and more harder. You have boxes within boxes. Boxes lead into other boxes, which lead back to themselves. You constantly have to think about directions and the space around you, and it’s not long before you find yourself lying awake, consumed by thoughts of boxes inside boxes inside boxes inside boxes inside –

Sorry, I got stuck for a second there. But that’s the kind of game Patrick’s Parabox is: it worms its way into your brain and sticks there, and if you’re a fan of deceptively simple puzzle games, you owe it to yourself to check this one out.

Draknek Limited provided us with a Patrick’s Parabox PS5 code for review purposes.