The WhatsNext verdict
For Fans of first-person physics puzzlers who enjoy novel mechanics and lighthearted, experimental puzzle solving.: Transforming your own past failures into physical puzzle-solving tools turns every hazard and dead end into a creative stepping stone across stylish art-deco test chambers. Tradeoff: A very brief overall campaign and occasional finicky physics mean the inventive premise concludes almost as soon as it hits its stride.
What it does best
Failure becomes a physical tool for solving the next puzzle
Compact physics puzzles built around earned aha moments
A charming retro art-deco laboratory world
What might put you off
The campaign is very short
Physics and controls can feel finicky
The setup
What you are walking into
Lab Rags is a wacky physics-based puzzle game where failure is meaningful! Use your bodies from previous attempts as pieces of the puzzle as you help yourself reach greater heights and far-away platforms. Play as our beloved crash test dummy and pass through various levels to test the lab’s fantastic inventions! Turret in your way? Put a body in the trash compactor and now you have a shield! Can’t get to the platform above you? Jump on the trampoline bodies to reach new heights! A spike pit that’s too long and you’re lacking ammo? A sphere body is all you need to roll on the spikes with, without taking damage! Lose yourself in this 1920’s futuristic art deco world as you wonder how to get past all the shiny and cool obstacles in your way. Shimmering gold and silky-smooth marble pave the walls and floors of these expensive labs. Within, hear the roars of the turrets decimating everything in their path, the ‘whoosh’ of wrecking balls swinging by you as you try to avoid them, the ‘ztztzt’ of the electric flooring that vaporizes all material on it, and the signature sound of the Vacuum Gun, sucking up bodies and making new ones! “But why?” you ask. Why create this lab and these machines and these obstacles? Well, just like life, humans fail constantly. But we often forget to see the good in failing – it's meaningful. Lab Rags is built on this philosophy – that failure is good. Use your previous knowledge and past experiences to get over the next obstacle. Your past failed attempts literally help you in Lab Rags as your position, manipulate and shoot your bodies to cross, solve and advance! We at Salt Mine Studios wish you the best and welcome you to our lab. Have fun!
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