Create on Facebook: This fun physics game forgot you have friends

Create in motion
Most Facebook games are littered with suggestions, pop ups and missions to guide you along in your progress, which certainly serve their purpose well. But not Create. The most recent Facebook game launch by EA, Create is a modified release of the puzzler with the same name currently available for all major consoles, PC and Mac. Tailored specifically for Facebook, this physics-based puzzle game provides players with the tools required to complete each level, but it's hands-off after that. While achieving real time physics on Facebook is certainly impressive, leaving the guesswork to the player soon becomes a double-edged sword.

Find more of our impressions of Create after the break.

Create Dashboard
Essentially, Create is a Rube Goldberg machine on Facebook. Your goal in each level is to, using the tools you're given, guide a soccer ball so that it hits its bulls eye target, making its way through hula hoops along the way for bonus points. However, getting into the meat of the game is rather confusing as Create will always load in sort of a hub world called the Dashboard. It's here that players can create as many soccer balls as they wish to play around with, check their best times and high scores and see how their friends are doing with their own creations. There is also a global list where creators can put others' balls through their own solutions to the game's puzzles. To start, you're given one ball, so just click "Go!" and choose any of the four puzzles.

This is where the fun begins... sort of. In each puzzle, there is a general path players will have to take to reach the target, but it is entirely up to them on how to approach it using the game's five tools. (In other words, this is a thinker.) These items include balloons, which will not float until an object, preferably the ball, make contact with its string. Players can also make use of orange bumpers which will repel any object that comes in contact with them at a high speed in the opposite direction. Suspended fans can also be used to propel the ball while boxes and see-saws serve of malleable platforms, though the see-saws somehow defy gravity. There's no limit to the amount of tools that can be used in any given puzzle, but clutter will be your worst enemy.

Create in motion again
Designed specifically to take advantage of Intel processors, the physics in Create are surprisingly smooth considering it's all happening in real time on Facebook. However, they can easily be broken. So far, I've found that certain items won't respond to gravity if placed in strange places, but who knows what other ways there are to break the system.

While the game's physics are certainly impressive--not to mention that it's refreshing to see a social game that requires critical thought--it's tough to call Create a social game. There seems to be little reason that this game is on Facebook other than the fact that it's a popular platform at the moment. Having friends in the game doesn't effect any portion of gameplay nor is there an incentive to continue logging in, which is something social games in their current state need to thrive. Though, it's doubtful that EA had that in mind to begin with when porting Create to the platform.

And perhaps I'm somewhat rusty when it comes to puzzle games, but Create doesn't exactly lend itself to the instantly gratifying gameplay of most social games. If your experience is anything like mine, you're going to be cracking at some puzzles for quite a while, which one could imagine the average social gamer just doesn't have time for on their lunch break. But if you have an extra minute, try something a little different than your average 'Ville and give that brain some exercise.