Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love

About

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love is a single player casual action adventure game. It was developed by Doppler Interactive and was released on February 14, 2014. It received neutral reviews from players.

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love is a surreal open-world exploration game that explores the creation of life and the pointlessness of existence. Players can choose from different views, such as Spindle, Perspective, or Data, to navigate the bizarre, colorful world. The game encourages players to spread color and joy, interact with strange creatures, and ultimately reunite the Ancient Cube and Star. This game is not for the faint of heart and offers a unique, mind-bending experience.

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Single-Player

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love screenshot

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60%

Audience ScoreBased on 112 reviews

humor1 positive mentions

story3 negative mentions

The game is visually appealing with pretty colors and a calming atmosphere, making it a great choice for relaxation.
It offers a unique and abstract experience that encourages exploration and creativity, allowing players to enjoy the journey without a strict objective.
Many players find it oddly addictive and satisfying to engage with the world, despite its simplicity and lack of clear direction.

The gameplay is repetitive and tedious, with slow movement and a lack of meaningful progression, leading to boredom over time.
There is little to no instruction or guidance, leaving players confused about objectives and mechanics, which can be frustrating.
Many achievements are broken or overly grindy, making completion feel pointless and discouraging for players seeking a fulfilling experience.

gameplay
27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
11%
78%
11%
The gameplay is characterized by a lack of engaging mechanics, with players primarily rolling a box around to collect shapes and spread color in an open world, leading to feelings of boredom and repetitiveness. While some appreciate the minimalist approach and the game's artistic qualities, many find the absence of clear objectives and meaningful interactions disappointing, resulting in a tedious experience. Overall, the gameplay is simplistic and lacks depth, making it difficult for players to stay invested over time.
- “The core mechanics are painting the world with color and collecting items.”
- “While the gameplay so far has never diverged from 'roll around, color, collect, talk', I don't think it needs to; it's a testament to the philosophy that simplicity is key and sometimes overthought in the game design process isn't required.”
- “In addition to the world being a clever mechanic, it also lends a hand to the relaxing nature of the game and imparts a sense of ownership as no two worlds will be the same and you can feel proud of your coloring as you traverse your world.”
- “You'll be quitting the game before you know what to do and discover the game mechanics.”
- “I don't mind having not much of an objective when playing a game, but close-to-none is a bit too much, especially when the playability is not on the table and the gameplay is so repetitive.”
- “I haven't mentioned a single thing about the gameplay because there is none - you hold arrow keys to roll a box around and pick up potentially tens of thousands of certain kinds of shapes while you bump into other shapes, and get cryptic and sometimes condescending messages on the topic of life shoved into your face, which even when I tried to read them I couldn't because sometimes the text faded too fast.”
music
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
25%
50%
25%
The music in the game is generally praised for its calming and tranquil qualities, enhancing the overall zen-like experience. While some players appreciate the charm and simplicity of the soundtrack, others find it repetitive and wish for more variety. Overall, the music contributes positively to the game's aesthetic, though technical issues regarding sound settings have been noted.
- “Seeing color spread around the map as a kind of diary of my travels, hearing the music change with the day/night cycle, meeting the cute little bee-cubes; all were simple pleasures.”
- “It's actually one of my favorites, and I love just chilling out and listening to music while I play.”
- “I don't usually play games with the sound on, but the music is very charming, and I find myself turning up the volume for this game.”
- “I suppose I would have had to play the game longer for its purpose/goals to reveal themselves, but the gameplay itself was tedious, and the music was extremely repetitive and quickly got on my nerves.”
- “The unnecessary collectible joke gets tedious after five seconds and you'll probably wish there was more than one music track, but otherwise this is a little gem.”
- “There is no options menu, the game forgets your music settings and always launches with music 'on'.”
story
11 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
18%
55%
27%
The game's story is often criticized for being minimalistic and difficult to uncover, with players needing to search extensively for narrative elements that feel disjointed and lacking depth. While some appreciate the exploration and the occasional intriguing backstory, many find the overall narrative insufficient and unengaging, suggesting that it fails to provide a compelling reason to invest in the gameplay. Overall, the story is seen as a barebones framework that does not enhance the gaming experience.
- “It's minimalistic aesthetic serves well the feeling of exploration, and the occasional bits of story you receive from journal pieces and conversations are tantalizing enough to entice you to find them all and piece together the entirety of the narrative.”
- “I adore this game and I can hardly explain why; the color, music, and totally minimalist gameplay create an experience that can perhaps only be described as 'fun', pure, simple 'fun' untethered by our expectations of a plot or any discernible end goal.”
- “If this game has a story, then you're going to have to dig relentlessly for it.”
- “Story seems like a barebones excuse to send you walking around in circles, coloring the landscape.”
- “There is no real story besides random lines.”
grinding
10 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The grinding aspect of the game is widely criticized for being tedious, boring, and lacking meaningful goals, with many players finding the achievement system particularly annoying. While some appreciate the initial charm and simplicity, the repetitive nature of gameplay and limited music tracks contribute to a frustrating experience that often leads to players quitting early. Overall, the grind feels excessive and detracts from the enjoyment of the game.
- “It's just another decent game ruined by the most annoying and grindy achievements possible.”
- “It is the very definition of grinding, only with no real goal in sight.”
- “I suppose I would have had to play the game longer for its purpose/goals to reveal themselves, but the gameplay itself was tedious, and the music was extremely repetitive and quickly got on my nerves.”
graphics
9 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
33%
34%
33%
The graphics of the game are described as colorful, minimalistic, and aesthetically pleasing, contributing to a sense of exploration and intrigue. However, the lack of graphics settings and various bugs detract from the overall experience, with some players expressing frustration over interface issues. While the visuals are appreciated, they are not enough to compensate for the game's repetitive nature and lack of engaging content.
- “Cube&Star is colorful, minimalistic, smart, darkly and subtly funny (the Nietzschean quips from the various geometric creatures make me alternate between wanting to laugh or cry), and aesthetically exquisite.”
- “This game is an awesome world/peaceful game, it has great graphics and good music.”
- “Its minimalistic aesthetic serves well the feeling of exploration, and the occasional bits of story you receive from journal pieces and conversations are tantalizing enough to entice you to find them all and piece together the entirety of the narrative.”
- “Evocative statements and abstract graphics cannot make up for the fact that there is simply little to do, and what there is is so drawn out you would need to grind for hours and hours just to see it.”
- “There is no options menu, the game forgets your music settings and always launches with music 'on', I found three different bugs, experienced one crash, and most importantly lost some of my interface because I can't change the graphics settings (because there are no graphics settings) and the HUD icons fall off the right side of my screen.”
- “There is no options menu, the game forgets your music settings and always launches with music 'on', I found three different bugs, experienced one crash, and most importantly lost some of my interface because I can't change the graphics settings (because there are no graphics settings) and the HUD icons fall off the right side of my screen.”
stability
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is frequently criticized for being buggy, with players reporting glitches that can affect gameplay and achievements. While some issues can be resolved with a quick restart, certain features, like the decoding puzzle, can lead to frustrating setbacks if not handled carefully. Overall, the experience is marred by inconsistencies that detract from the enjoyment.
- “Seems to be buggy from playing and reading the forums; some achievements may not be possible.”
- “The only downside in my experience so far is that the decoding puzzle is buggy--basically, don't assign a letter unless you're very sure that's the one you want, because it might mess up and undo your changes and leave you in a confused mess.”
- “You can create whatever piece of interactive experience to express the pointlessness of existence, but for buggy, ill-considered, and insurmountable achievements one should simply rot in hell.”
humor
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
Cube&star is praised for its colorful and minimalistic design, complemented by a smart and subtly dark humor that evokes a mix of laughter and introspection through Nietzschean quips from its geometric characters. The humor adds depth to the game's aesthetic appeal, making it both visually and intellectually engaging.
- “Cube&star is colorful, minimalistic, smart, and darkly funny. The Nietzschean quips from the various geometric creatures make me alternate between wanting to laugh or cry, and the game is aesthetically exquisite.”

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Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love is a casual action adventure game.

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love is available on PC, Mac OS, Windows and Linux.

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love was released on February 14, 2014.

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love was developed by Doppler Interactive.

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love has received neutral reviews from players. Most players liked this game for its humor but disliked it for its gameplay.

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love is a single player game.

Similar games include MirrorMoon EP, Proteus, TIMEframe, WitCup 12, The Witness and others.

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