LIFTED Review

LIFTED is a lovely if brief family platformer with colorful worlds, simple puzzles, and enjoyable time-traveling adventures.

LIFTED comes from Adventure Works, a studio founded by former Disney Imagineer Jeff Ashbrook, and that background is clearly visible to notice throughout the game. Rather than following the darker and more serious approach often associated with cinematic platformers, LIFTED inspires colorful family adventures and the feel of classic 1980s movies. 

You can see influences from films such as Back to the Future and Indiana Jones in its time-traveling setup, historical locations, comedy, and action sequences, while the game itself is presented as a 2.5D puzzle platformer designed to be approachable for a wide range of players.

The game clearly aims to offer a lighthearted experience that younger players and families can enjoy together.

You get two difficulty options, Classic and Easy, with the lower setting adjusting button timings, providing more puzzle hints, and making platforms wider. That focus on accessibility is one of LIFTED's most important qualities, although the game occasionally works against its intentions with sudden difficulty spikes and a few technical problems.

You play as Ari Buck, a high school student who is more concerned with extra credit and getting back to his girlfriend than becoming involved in a historical treasure hunt. His physics teacher, Professor Raven Thorp, has invented a time machine called the Anytime Elevator, which treats history like different floors in a building. 

The professor brings Ari and his pet chinchilla, Julius, along on a journey through time in search of the lost tiara of Queen Nefertari, hoping the artifact will help him impress his romantic interest.

The Anytime Elevator can usually reach the correct time, but its location accuracy is far less dependable. You might select a specific year and aim for a particular region, only to end up somewhere entirely different, such as pirate-infested Tortuga. This creates the excuse for Ari, Raven Thorp, and Julius to travel between different historical periods while following clues toward the missing tiara. 

The basic setup is fun, but the story itself is fairly predictable, and you can often tell where the adventure is heading before the characters arrive there. Ari and Raven Thorp are clearly modeled after the classic time-traveling duo of Marty and Doc, and that influence is particularly noticeable in their personalities and performances. The comparison works as a playful homage, although it can also make the game's identity feel less original.

The writing is also one of the weaker parts of the experience. 

Ari and Raven Thorp are prone to one-liners and jokes, the script seemingly intent on keeping the conversation light at almost all opportunities. Some of the dialogue can be forced or too predictable, especially when the characters try to be witty all the time.

The supporting cast is more fun overall. The time thieves and their weary assistant have better comedic timing and personality than the main characters. But it’s consistent with the family-friendly tone, and the colorful adventure might work for younger players who may not mind the simpler humor.

LIFTED is a 2.5D puzzle platformer, where you’re on a mostly linear path through fully 3D environments. It doesn’t just feel like you’re sliding left and right over a flat-looking world; it makes it feel like you’re moving through a three-dimensional environment as you follow a twisting 2D path. 

Ari starts with the standard platforming skills you'd expect, like jumping and double jumping, then slowly adds more ways to get around the world. You can roll and dodge hazards, climb walls with handholds, and use a grappling hook to reach higher areas or interact with parts of the environment. 

As you progress in the adventure, you will also gain access to skills and tools that allow you to pull objects, move blocks, climb ledges, slide on muddy slopes and ice, and deal with environmental hazards like powerful winds.

Ari starts with the standard platforming skills you'd expect, like jumping and double jumping, and slowly adds more ways to get around the world. 

You’ll be able to roll and dodge hazards, climb walls with handholds, and use a grappling hook to reach higher areas or interact with parts of the environment. As you explore through the adventure, you will also learn skills and acquire tools that allow you to pull objects, move blocks, climb ledges, slide on muddy slopes and ice, and handle environmental hazards such as powerful winds. 

LIFTED also breaks up the traditional platforming with several cinematic chase and vehicle sections. You may find yourself escaping from a collapsing temple, running away from enemies, being pursued by furious crowds from different historical periods, or riding through minecart sequences while avoiding broken tracks.
 
These moments are among the liveliest in the game, with the environment changing around you and characters reacting to the chaos. However, the minecart sections don't always feel as fast or exciting as they should, which drains some energy from the action.

The game's checkpoints are generous, so when you fail a platforming challenge, you can usually get back into the action without losing much progress. Unfortunately, there are also some technical difficulties that spoil the experience. 

Some reloads can cause glitches that block progress, such as an important platform not appearing or a jump that cannot be completed without returning to the main menu. Sometimes objects just disappear, making already difficult sections even more frustrating.

There is no traditional combat in Lifted, consistent with its family-friendly theme. 

No, the game is centered on platforming, environmental puzzles, and cinematic escape sequences. Usually you're bouncing between platforms, scaling walls, swinging with your grappling hook, and utilizing your abilities to traverse each historical setting.

The puzzles are mostly simple, but there is enough variety to keep the pace changing. Many use moving blocks to hit pressure plates to raise or lower elevators; some use light beams, bounce pads, varying platform heights, and environmental objects. Some puzzles will make you stop and think for a while, but most are easy. 

The bigger issue is that the overall level design does not develop as much as it could. Many of the challenges rely on familiar platforming ideas, and you can spend much of the game waiting for the mechanics to become more complex. The chase scenes are more thrilling in concept, but some have surprising difficulty spikes that clash with the game’s otherwise gentle approach. 

There are a few moments that require very precise timing and can lead to repeated failure, which feels out of place in a game mostly geared toward younger players. Some of the platforming parts can also be surprisingly challenging, but the bulk of the adventure remains fairly easy.

LIFTED has no traditional XP grind or character leveling system. Instead, progression is built around learning new traversal abilities and slowly stringing them together to face more complex challenges. You can also search for hidden time ornaments and historical artifacts, including collectibles rooted in items such as the Rosetta Stone. 

Presentation is one of LIFTED’s stronger suits. 

The game is presented in a bright, colorful cartoon style that matches its family-friendly tone, and the historical settings give each chapter its own visual identity. You travel through places ranging from snowy settings to ancient settings and pirate settings, and the game does a good job of making each period feel different. 

The environments are often imaginative and immersive, with some places looking almost like colorful animated sets. Snow, for example, has a soft, candy-like appearance, while the overall presentation carries some of the visual personality associated with games such as Dreams. 

The soundtrack supports the game's adventurous tone and draws on the kind of cinematic musical style associated with Back to the Future and Indiana Jones. It retains the feel of a family-friendly time travel film and adds zip to the more action-oriented stretches. 

The music is sometimes a little generic, and the sound mixing is uneven at times, which hurts some of the action scenes. The voice acting is generally enthusiastic and helps bring Ari, Raven Thorp, and Julius to life, even if the dialogue itself can get tiresome. At least the performances give the characters enough energy to keep the game’s playful personality alive.

LIFTED is a well-meaning game with a good idea of the audience it wants to target. Easy to pick up and play, this game has a colorful presentation, family-friendly tone, approachable mechanics, and a time-travel premise. The various historical settings are fun to explore, and the mix of platforming, puzzles, collectibles, and chase sequences provides enough variety to the short adventure to keep it interesting for most of its runtime.

The main problem is that LIFTED feels like it stops just as it’s getting started. 

The entire adventure can be completed in roughly two and a half hours, and that short runtime limits the number of environments, puzzles, and gameplay ideas the developers can introduce. What could have been a larger globe-trotting time-travel adventure instead feels like a brief experience that stops before its mechanics have a chance to fully develop.

The game also has some uneven difficulty and technical issues that need attention. Most of LIFTED feels gentle and accessible, but a handful of platforming and chase sequences suddenly demand much more precision. Some of these moments become even more frustrating when bugs appear, especially when an invisible platform or a missing object stops you dead. 

But if you go into LIFTED as a short family adventure, there’s something to like. Professor Raven Thorp and Ari’s relationship is the catalyst for a breezy romp through history, and Julius adds another layer of personality to the group. Platforming is mostly solid, puzzles add some welcome variety, and chase sequences capture the energetic feel of a family adventure movie.

Ultimately, LIFTED is a good idea that needed more time to mature. Its short length, simplistic level design, uneven dialogue, and technical problems hold it back from real greatness, but the colorful presentation and accessible gameplay make it worth checking out for younger players or families looking for a short game to play together.