The Paradixion: Laboratory

Looks like a pretty blatant rusty lake rip-off, bordering on plagiarism, even if it wasn't the intention. Had they not been very open about that this is a solo dev project in the text blurb on the store, then I would have been much hasher and assumed they where trying to get sales from people thinking this is a Rusty Lake-franchise game. What I think happened is just that the dev was heavily inspired by Rusty Lake, but didn't make enough effort in developing their own style.

Because it's very easy to believe it's a early Rusty Lake game at a glance. The artstyle is very similar only with slightly worse assets, they even have almost identical way of showing that you solved a puzzle, with a bright yellow light and a similar sound effect. The game has a very similar surreal atmosphere and seems to go for almost identical themes with corrupted souls. It

The puzzles are decent (and a few where great) and from what I can remember not copied, but I can't really recommend this, even if it's a solo project. If the dev did their own thing with a more unique artstyle/themes, then I would have been more positive, but as it is, this feels like a cheap iOS rip-off of a much better series. I wish the dev did spend some time developing a different aesthetics for the next entry in this series, because there is something here, it's just that it gets overshadowed by looking like an asset flip of Rusty Lake.

Rusty Lake rip-off, but cheaper. Where Rusty Lake has a (compelling) story, the actions in this game seem completely random and there's no hint of a plot line, neither the dark humor of Rusty Lake.
Did I mention Rusty Lake?
Although the graphics are simple, there is still a lot that can (and does) go wrong in this kind of puzzle game. Here, it didn't end well.

After playing the demo I was not going to purchase due to the microscope puzzle. When I learned the developer added a skip option on that puzzle for the game I purchased and enjoyed it a lot. I have all there games now.