Most Epic Scene Ever in a Game

When it comes to games there's quite a few interpretations of the word 'epic' that I could use as a definition for this post. I'm choosing to interpret this as the scene from a game that stunned me most and left me sitting entranced wondering what did I just see and there's only one option for me, the ending sequence from Manifold Garden.

If there is one word that best describes Manifold Garden as a game it is "recursion" - the game uses a relatively simple art style but its visuals are astounding because of its use of repetition and recursion. Many times within the game I found myself just standing still looking at the environment and being in awe of what the developer William Chyr was able to create.

William Chyr is an artist, that's not just an expression of admiration for his work that's literally his career. He created many real world installations and when he reached the limit of what he could do in physical space he sought out the digital as a means to realise concepts that he wanted to depict, this led him to explore game development. Manifold Garden is quite literally a work of art because that's the purpose for which it was created, the gameplay elements were secondary to the design. You do get to play this game but at times it is clear that you are doing so as a means to experience art in an immersive environment.

The core mechanic of the game is that of block-and-button based puzzle solving, the twist beyond the art style is the ability to switch gravity. Walk up to any "wall" in the game and click on it and gravity switches so that wall becomes the floor. With six possibly orientations of gravity, each slightly colour coded to make it easier to keep your bearing in 3D space, the complexity of the puzzles build over time.

As you explore the world he has created you eventually reach a central hub, a place that becomes a garden as you explore 6 areas connected to it through pathways in each of the directions of gravity, these 6 plains come together as a mathematical manifold (a space that resembles Euclidean space when observed locally) but as you play through the game it becomes quite clear that you are not playing in Euclidean space, this creates some interesting visuals and complex puzzles when you realise you have to shift your perspective and how you view the level geometry.

The end sequence has multiple variations, in theory there would be 721, the reason for this is because each of the 6 directions you navigate to in the game contains a "God Cube" that you must place, doing so manifests a mandala in the sky which in itself is visually stunning. Each mandala has a colour theme associated with it and the ending of the game changes depending on which ones you have unlocked.

I say there are 721 in theory because in practice I think only a handful can actually be reached. Ultimately there are 2 exit paths that lead to the ending sequence, one is the null path which shows you the ending without any God Cubes unlocked, the other shows you the colourful ending with the colour channels activated or deactivated depending on which cubes you have placed. The complication comes due to the fact that once you begin down the null path you get cut off from the regular path and vice versa unless you get creative with the regular cubes that you can move around in the game - which I have seen many YouTube videos of players doing, navigating the space with an understanding of its geography that boggles the mind.

You can watch multiple variations of the ending sequence on YouTube, it is also possible to cheat in-game but doing so disables the achievement system and auto-saving. Using cheats it would be possible to find out how many distinct variations of the ending actually exist but I haven't put much effort into doing that.

In a previous post I mentioned that Manifold Garden was a case study in one of the theses I wrote, it is ultimately a perspective based 3D First Person Puzzle game, but it demonstrates how the limitations of the real world don't exist in a game world and how you can exploit that by establishing simple rules and simple structures but layer them to achieve complexity that physical space would make otherwise impossible. I love this game because of the way it expands your mind, the end sequence is just testament to that fact. I have watched so many playthroughs of this game because it exemplifies the entertainment value in watching other people think, and discovering their thought processes.

I need to include the sequence because there's no way to describe it without having seen it.

Watch at the highest setting your internet connection can handle, but forewarning YouTube compression does a number on the sequence, you really have to see it first hand for the full effect.