The White Laboratory
- March 28, 2019
- Laboratory Systems
- 75h median play time
Get on SteamIn "The White Laboratory," players build and command robotic structures in a physics-based tower defense and real-time strategy game set in a gas planet's atmosphere. Using modular geometry components, players adapt to combat situations, consider physical phenomena for strategic decision-making, and navigate crazy physics-based gameplay where 99% of the elements are physically simulated. The game is about completing a maintenance task by cleaning up unwanted elements.
PC
Windows
Reviews
- Innovative blend of tower defense and RTS mechanics, allowing for creative tower and vehicle building.
- Challenging gameplay with a good difficulty curve that encourages strategic thinking.
- Unique physics-based mechanics that add depth to the gameplay experience.
- Frequent bugs and crashes, including a major white screen issue that disrupts gameplay.
- Controls and physics can be frustratingly janky, making building and maneuvering difficult.
- Limited content with only a few campaign levels, leading to a lack of replayability.
- gameplay37 mentions
- 30 % positive mentions
- 59 % neutral mentions
- 11 % negative mentions
The gameplay is a unique blend of RTS and tower defense mechanics, offering players creative freedom in building and strategizing. While the core mechanics are praised for their innovation and fun, issues such as inconsistent physics, tedious rebuilding processes, and a lack of content hinder the overall experience. Despite these drawbacks, many players find the gameplay engaging and worth the investment, with a desire for more content and user-generated options.
“It combines RTS and tower defense with good mechanics applied to both.”
“I love this game; it is such an amazing concept of tower defense, and it is really fun to build crazy towers and gunships, with all of these amazing mechanics that make this game worth buying.”
“The main mechanic of building towers and salvaging parts from your enemies is fantastic.”
“Moment-to-moment gameplay is incredibly tedious, either because you're constantly rebuilding towers by hand as they take chip damage, or because you're waiting for the main platform to regenerate enough energy to advance or change locations.”
“I don't understand how a game can screw up something as simple as click and drag mechanics, but somehow this game does.”
“This game would be worth the price if it was finished, if it didn't have bad physics and bad AI and bad crafting mechanics.”
- graphics9 mentions
- 44 % positive mentions
- 33 % neutral mentions
- 22 % negative mentions
The graphics are praised for their clean, minimalist aesthetic, featuring a robotic, "portal-esque" design that effectively combines simplicity with visual appeal. However, some users reported technical issues, such as an inability to lock the framerate, which led to overheating concerns for their graphics cards. Overall, the game's innovative style and good-looking visuals contribute positively to the gaming experience.
“I like this game quite a lot for its robotic 'portal-esque' aesthetic, with everything being precise and the colors white, gray, and black.”
“The game's graphics are very good.”
“Can't lock framerate, caused my graphics card to go up to 100 degrees Celsius.”
“Slick, minimalist art style.”
- music7 mentions
- 57 % positive mentions
- 14 % neutral mentions
- 29 % negative mentions
The music in the game is widely praised for its top-quality soundtrack, which complements the innovative visuals and challenging gameplay. Reviewers appreciate the clean and minimalistic sound design, noting that it enhances the overall experience without being intrusive, allowing for a relaxed gaming atmosphere.
“Cool soundtrack, clean minimal visuals, innovative style, tasty sound, challenging gameplay, and a funny feeling.”
“Has a top quality soundtrack, great gameplay, and a good difficulty curve.”
“Sound and music are simple and non-intrusive, allowing for relaxed gameplay.”
“The music is simple and non-intrusive, allowing for relaxed gameplay.”
“From UI to music, gameplay, and physics, the overall experience feels lacking.”
- story6 mentions
- 50 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
The game's story is concise, featuring only three challenging missions that require strategic thinking, but players find the overall experience short and somewhat frustrating due to glitchy physics and limited content. While the missions are engaging, the abrupt ending after the final mission leaves players wanting more, highlighting a sense of disappointment regarding the game's length and depth.
“The game is awesome, but kind of short... there are 3 levels in the story and 2 survival levels.”
“There are only 3 missions, but all three of them are hard and take quite a while to complete, which is not because it is extremely long and tedious, but because it requires some thinking and strategy.”
“However, despite the frustrations caused by the physics engine, I very much enjoyed this game and was a bit disappointed when after the last mission, when you were able to take control of a whole factory, the credits came, promising no more levels after that one.”
“The game is awesome, but kind of short... there are 3 levels in the 'story' and 2 'survival' levels.”
“There are only 3 missions but all three of them are hard and take quite a while to complete, which is not because it is extremely long and tedious, but because it requires some thinking and strategy.”
“There were also a lot of glitchy things that needed ironing out, like in the end mission where you are clearly supposed to supply a factory with parts from storage via tram units equipped with the magnetic prism. However, when a disk was picked up by a prism tram transport, it immediately switched on and tried to make the entire thing fly, taking it off the tracks and making automatic production of new units nearly impossible unless you wanted to frustratingly do it by hand.”
- humor4 mentions
- 100 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 0 % negative mentions
The humor in the game is characterized by its occasional funny physics and a lighthearted, amusing atmosphere, which some players found entertaining. However, others felt that while the game has a visually appealing style and engaging soundtrack, it ultimately creates more problems than it solves, with humor being a minor benefit.
“Funny block combat game.”
“Cool soundtrack, clean minimal visuals, innovative style, tasty sound, challenging gameplay, and a funny feeling.”
“Occasionally funny physics - got a few 'pfft's out of me.”
- grinding4 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
Players find the grinding aspect of the game to be tedious and frustrating, often involving repetitive tasks like manually repairing towers and waiting for energy regeneration. While the limited number of challenging missions requires strategic thinking, the overall experience is marred by a lack of enjoyment and excessive monotony.
“Moment-to-moment gameplay is incredibly tedious, either because you're constantly rebuilding towers by hand as they take chip damage, or because you're waiting for the main platform to regenerate enough energy to advance or change locations.”
“A lot of it can get incredibly tedious and the game would benefit heavily without it.”
“Tedious and tests patience, rather than an enjoyable experience.”
- replayability3 mentions
- 67 % positive mentions
- -67 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game exhibits mixed feedback regarding replayability; while some players find it enjoyable with good mechanics and modes that enhance replay value, others feel it becomes less fun after a limited playtime, suggesting a need for more content to sustain interest.
“It's packed with a lot of fun mechanics and modes and also has very good replayability value, so it's totally worth it.”
“That would help the game a lot and add to it in terms of replayability a great deal.”
“Good concept, but lacks replayability and it's just not fun after 8 hours or less.”
“The game feels repetitive after the first playthrough, making it hard to want to dive back in.”
“Once you complete the main story, there's little incentive to replay, as the side content feels uninspired.”
- stability2 mentions
- 150 % positive mentions
- -100 % neutral mentions
- 50 % negative mentions
Overall, user feedback on stability is mixed; while some players report that the game runs smoothly, others express frustration with bugs that hinder their enjoyment of the content.
“Runs great!”
“The game maintains a smooth performance without any crashes.”
“I appreciate how stable the gameplay is, even during intense moments.”
“It looked funky from Let's Plays and reviews, but I just found myself getting frustrated with it being buggy and unable to enjoy the content.”
- optimization2 mentions
- 0 % positive mentions
- 0 % neutral mentions
- 100 % negative mentions
The game suffers from significant optimization issues, with players reporting severe stuttering and poor physics performance, particularly in later levels. These problems hinder gameplay, making it nearly unplayable for some users.
“Good game, but sadly it is unplayable due to stuttering.”
“I've also had trouble completing many of the latter levels due to poor physics performance, the biggest suspect being 'reflective relations', which somehow manages to bring my game to an absolute crawl when it was already struggling to keep up.”
