Review: Floor Plan – PS4/PSVR

I’m fond of puzzle games. Not overly fond, mind you; I’m not a weirdo. I like my action games, my shooters, and my annual FIFAs, but I’m partial to a good brainteaser, too. And that’s why Floor Plan is now one of the most divisive games in my PS4 library.
To play Floor Plan you’ll need a PlayStation VR headset and a DualShock 4 or a pair of PS Move wands. For the purpose of this review, I only played using the PS Move wands. Not because I don’t care about the wandless players, but because I finished the game in one sitting and didn’t really see much point in playing it again with a traditional controller. Yes, you can play and finish Floor Plan on PSVR in one go.

Floor Plan takes inspiration from the classics of yesteryear. I was definitely getting Monkey Island vibes from the off. The game takes place entirely within the confines of an elevator. That may not sound very interesting but bear with me and I’ll tell you why your presumption is wrong.
Each floor has a different theme of sorts. There’s a cold floor with a snowman and a rack of meat behind him. There’s a robotic cowboy who’ll shoot whatever you give him. There’s a graveyard. See what I mean? Weird. But weird can be wonderful. I’m living proof of that. And yes, I am wonderful.
Game Info

• Developer: Turbo Button
• Release Date: North America – March 20th. UK/EU – April (TBC)
• Price: $5.99 (20% launch discount for PS Plus members)

Your task is to figure out what each floor requires you to do. Using the PS Move controllers you’ll be able to point at different object and pick them up. You can stash them in your elevator for later use. And you will do that. Trust me. There’s no simple solution. You’ll go from one floor to the next, picking up seemingly useless objects, and then you’ll go through the floors trying to find a way to use your newly acquired items.

The game doesn’t do much to help you. You basically start the game and that’s it. There’s no instruction, though it is clear you need to find some items for a futuristic suit and bring them back to the top floor. If you get stuck you can get some hints by pressing the call button on the elevator. I’m ashamed to admit that the game got the better of me on more than one occasion, and so I was forced (by my own lack of intelligence) to use the hint system. It’s not really a hint system, though, as the hints more or less tell you what you need to do. If you’re going from floor to floor with no items, the game will point out that you need to find an item. I was quickly reduced to going from one floor to the next, hopelessly pointing the cursor at everything. I’m dumb. What you gonna do.
For those with a bit more going on between the ears, Floor Plan is a challenging puzzler. For those, like me, who struggle to comprehend anything longer than three syllables, Floor Plan is a challenging puzzler with an on-the-nose hint system. But hey, it works and it means that everyone will finish the game.

Floor Plan is by no means perfect. Far from it. For one, the tracking was a little wonky with my Move controllers, but not to a point where it became unplayable. Just a little drift here and there. And then there’s the game’s length. I managed to make my way through the entire game in a little over an hour. If you’re a smart arse, I’m sure you can probably get that down to around 30-45 minutes. That wouldn’t be so bad if there was a point to replaying the game, but there isn’t. If you’ve done the puzzles once, they aren’t going to be much more fun the second time around.
It’s a nice looking game and it’s obvious that some love has gone into creating each and every wacky situation on the various floors. Sounds are nice, too, with a comical mix to keep things light.
Floor Plan isn’t a serious game at all. It’s a silly little game that’ll keep you entertained for an hour or so. Maybe longer if you’re not all there. The fact I got over an hour out of Floor Plan shows that it’s not always better to be smart.