Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love

About

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.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

Cube & Star: An Arbitrary Love screenshot

61%

Audience ScoreBased on 220 reviews

graphics4 positive mentions

gameplay6 negative mentions

The game is visually appealing with pretty colors and a calming atmosphere, making it a good choice for relaxation.
It offers a unique, abstract experience that encourages exploration and creativity, allowing players to enjoy the journey of coloring the world.
Many players find it oddly addictive and enjoy the meditative quality of wandering through the game, even if the objectives are vague.

The gameplay is repetitive and slow, leading to boredom as players often feel lost without clear objectives or instructions.
Many achievements are broken or overly grindy, making completion frustrating and discouraging for players who enjoy collecting.
The game lacks depth and meaningful interaction, often feeling more like an art piece than a traditional game, which may not appeal to everyone.

gameplay
54 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
7%
82%
11%
The gameplay has received mixed reviews, with many players criticizing its lack of engaging mechanics and repetitive nature, leading to boredom and frustration. While some appreciate the minimalist approach and the open-world exploration, others feel that the absence of clear objectives and meaningful interactions detracts from the overall experience. Overall, the gameplay is described as simplistic and lacking depth, with some players finding it more akin to an art piece than a traditional game.
- “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 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.”
- “The game world is huge, which is something of a negative, because, with gameplay from start to finish basically consisting of just bumping trees and spreading color, I ran out of interest in the game before I could cover the world in color or get any of my completion.”
music
24 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
13%
74%
13%
The music in the game is generally praised for its calming and tranquil qualities, enhancing the overall zen-like experience. However, some players find it repetitive and wish for more variety, as the limited number of tracks can become tedious over time. Despite these criticisms, many appreciate the music's charm and its ability to create a relaxing atmosphere while playing.
- “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 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.”
- “There are some redeeming qualities: it is pretty, and the music is tranquil, fitting with the zen-like feel.”
- “The unnecessary collectible is unnecessary; the 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.”
- “I supposed 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.”
- “There is no options menu, the game forgets your music settings and always launches with music 'on'.”
story
22 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
14%
72%
14%
The game's story is often described as minimalistic and fragmented, requiring players to dig deeply for narrative elements that are not readily apparent. While some appreciate the exploration and the occasional backstory found in journal entries, many feel that the overall storyline is lacking and serves merely as a backdrop for gameplay. Overall, the narrative experience is polarizing, with some players enjoying the simplicity and others finding it insufficient and unengaging.
- “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.”
- “Throughout the game, you're peppered with little bits of backstory written in a simple substitution cipher, and a ton of incredibly generic but nearly universally applicable bits of life advice, generally aimed at convincing you to be less boring.”
- “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
20 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 feeling that the grind for achievements detracts from the overall experience. While some find initial enjoyment, the repetitive nature of tasks and limited music tracks contribute to a sense of frustration, leading many to abandon the game early. Overall, the grind is seen as a significant flaw that overshadows the game's potential.
- “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 supposed 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
18 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
22%
61%
17%
The game's graphics are described as colorful, minimalistic, and aesthetically pleasing, contributing to a sense of exploration and narrative discovery. However, the lack of graphics settings and various bugs detract from the overall experience, leading to frustration among players. While the visuals are appreciated, some feel they cannot compensate for the game's repetitive nature and limited 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. Other than that, it was pretty much worth it.”
- “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
12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The game's stability is frequently criticized for being buggy, with players reporting various glitches that can disrupt gameplay, particularly with achievements and puzzles. While some issues can be resolved with a quick restart, the overall experience is marred by inconsistencies and a lack of control in certain mechanics.
- “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
2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100%
The humor in Cube&star is characterized as dark and subtle, featuring Nietzschean quips from geometric creatures that evoke a mix of laughter and introspection. Players appreciate the game's colorful and minimalistic aesthetic, which complements its intelligent comedic elements.
- “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 the game is aesthetically exquisite.”

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