- Unique language-based puzzle mechanic.
- Stunning visuals and immersive audio.
- Balanced, enjoyable gameplay experience.
- Rich world-building and lore.
- Decipher languages through observation/deduction.
- Frustrating navigation/backtracking issues.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 96% · Negative 4%. Score: 4 / 100
Positives:
- The core gameplay revolves around deciphering unique languages through observation, deduction, and contextual clues. Players translate glyphs, learn grammar, and understand cultural nuances to progress, creating a rewarding sense of linguistic discovery and cultural understanding. This mechanic is consistently praised for its originality, depth, and engaging nature.
- The game features a distinctive and aesthetically pleasing art style, often described as beautiful, gorgeous, and visually stunning. The combination of the game's graphics, level design, and color palettes creates a captivating and immersive experience for players. The soundtrack is also frequently lauded for complementing the visuals and enhancing the overall atmosphere.
- The game offers a well-balanced and enjoyable gameplay experience. It provides a satisfying level of challenge without being overly frustrating, and the difficulty curve is well-managed. The game's length is also praised for being appropriate, preventing it from becoming repetitive or tedious.
- The game features rich world-building, with each area having distinct cultures, architectures, and lore. The environments are varied and detailed, creating a sense of a lived-in world that rewards exploration and investment in the game's story. This aspect enhances the overall immersion and provides a compelling reason to progress.
- The game features a compelling and emotionally resonant story that explores themes of communication, understanding, and unity. The ending is often described as moving, beautiful, and thought-provoking, leaving a lasting impression on players. The narrative effectively ties together the gameplay mechanics and world-building, creating a cohesive and impactful experience.
Negatives:
- Many reviewers found the game's navigation to be frustrating due to the lack of a map, confusing level design, and slow movement speed. This leads to excessive backtracking and getting lost, hindering the overall experience.
- Stealth and chase sequences are frequently criticized as being out of place, poorly implemented, and frustrating. These sections detract from the core puzzle-solving experience and are often cited as a major drawback.
- The game's ending is often described as rushed, underwhelming, and anticlimactic. Reviewers felt that the final stages lacked depth and failed to provide a satisfying resolution to the story.
- There is no consensus on the game's difficulty. Some reviewers found it too easy, while others found it challenging or frustrating, indicating an uneven difficulty curve.
- The final language and its associated puzzles are considered weak and uninspired. The translation quality is also criticized, with some reviewers finding it confusing or inaccurate.
Gameplay:
- The core gameplay revolves around deciphering languages in a Tower of Babel-like setting. Players learn languages by observing character actions, environment details, and comparing different languages to infer the meaning of glyphs. Each language has unique syntax rules, sentence structures and a limited vocabulary, requiring deduction and inference based on context clues.
- Players record glyphs and their interpretations in a journal, which automatically updates translations as new information is discovered. This mechanic is similar to "Return of the Obra Dinn," where confirming glyph accuracy locks in translations. The final floor features a dictionary that becomes semi-automated, giving the feeling that a PC or AI is assisting.
- The game features point-and-click adventure mechanics with puzzles, exploration, and occasional stealth or chase sequences. The game is relatively linear, but the puzzles are intriguing and complex, despite simple base mechanics. Some areas are very back-tracking heavy and labyrinthine.
- The game is loosely based on the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, where each level has a unique civilization, culture, and language. The player controls a character who seeks to unite the inhabitants of the tower and restore peace. Reaching the top of the tower does not signify the end of the game, as there are still hidden elements to uncover.
- The game includes puzzles that require finding specific objects, switch puzzles, item searching puzzles, and word guessing puzzles. To validate a solution, players must assign multiple meanings to drawings from a comprehensive list to prevent random guessing. The game confirms your understanding of words and encourages you after piecing together solutions.
Performance:
- The game is well-optimized and runs smoothly on a wide range of hardware, including the Steam Deck and older PCs. Reviewers reported high frame rates and smooth controls, with some specifically praising the game's performance on lower-end systems.
- Multiple reviewers reported encountering very few or no bugs during their playthroughs. This suggests a stable and polished game experience.
- The game has good Steam integration, including cloud saves, achievements, and trading cards. It also features an auto-save function, providing a convenient and user-friendly experience.
- The blinking mechanic, particularly in certain levels, can be visually straining due to dark transitions. This could lead to discomfort or frustration for some players.
- One reviewer reported a potential bug related to staircase navigation, where the character would only move in one direction. This issue may impede player movement and require further investigation.
Recommendations:
- The game is overwhelmingly recommended as a unique, enjoyable, and high-quality puzzle experience. Reviewers highlight its engaging gameplay, satisfying content, and reasonable price, often describing it as a must-play and a worthwhile investment of time and money. Many recommend it to both puzzle enthusiasts and newcomers to the genre.
- The game is particularly praised for its unique language-based puzzles and its appeal to those interested in linguistics, languages, and cultural themes. Reviewers recommend it to fans of similar games like Heaven's Vault and Return of the Obra Dinn, highlighting the sense of accomplishment derived from deciphering the game's languages.
- Reviewers emphasize the importance of playing the game without walkthroughs or hints to fully appreciate the puzzle-solving experience. They suggest exploring the environment thoroughly and experimenting with the game's mechanics to maximize enjoyment and self-discovery. Some suggest a 'hard mode' without language verification.
- The game is described using superlative terms such as "masterpiece", "god-tier", and "marvel", indicating exceptional artistic and technical achievement. These reviews convey a strong sense of awe and admiration for the game's overall quality and design.
- The game is seen as a rare and innovative title that showcases the creativity and originality of indie game development. Reviewers highlight its unique qualities and its contribution to the puzzle genre.
Miscellaneous:
- The game's core theme revolves around the Tower of Babel myth, exploring language as a bridge between cultures and highlighting the importance of communication, unity, and understanding to overcome societal divisions and xenophobia. The narrative emphasizes connecting different cultures and achieving universal harmony.
- Each level introduces a distinct culture with its own language, visual style, and societal structure, creating a cohesive and historically plausible world. The game effectively uses art and level design to reflect the unique characteristics and peculiarities of each population, enhancing the immersive experience.
- The game simplifies languages to a subject-predicate-object structure, teaching players basic linguistic concepts like plurals and negations. The writing systems are inspired by real-world examples, and the game cleverly uses words and sentences to reflect the unique syntax and grammatical structure of different language systems.
- The game's complexity is easy to understand, with a normal difficulty and an average playtime of around 12 hours. The game is suitable for a wide audience, and while the story could be clearer, the game delivers on its advertised vibes.
- The game features two different endings, with a more satisfying conclusion for players who complete extra tasks. The themes are focused enough to make the true ending feel profound, encouraging players to explore the game's world and narrative more deeply.
