Simon the Sorcerer Origins Review Summary

Highly enjoyable game experience: Players found the game to be very fun, entertaining, and well-made, often recommending it and expressing satisfaction with their purchase. Many were positively surprised by the quality and enjoyed the overall journey, feeling it was worth the money spent.

Authentic Simon revival: The game successfully brings Simon back, maintaining the character's charm, humor, and the series' core spirit, often with original voice actors. It provides a strong sense of nostalgia for long-time fans while feeling like a true return to the roots of the series, especially as a prequel.

Charming hand-drawn visuals: The game's hand-drawn graphics and art style are consistently praised for being beautiful, charming, and a fitting homage to 90s adventures. The visuals are considered presentable, pleasing to the eye, and contribute significantly to the game's atmosphere while offering a fresh, modernized look.

Sharp humor and witty writing: The game's humor, including dark humor, British wit, and Simon's characteristic sarcasm, is highly appreciated. Dialogues are described as funny, polished, full of personality, and often break the fourth wall, making the story engaging and entertaining.

Gripping and fresh story: The game's story is described as cool, interesting, and gripping, successfully delivering a fresh narrative while staying true to the series' core. It allows for deeper exploration of characters and keeps players engaged, offering an engaging plot that can interest.

Confusing and Unintuitive Puzzles: Many players found the puzzle design to be illogical, unintuitive, and often frustrating, leading to reliance on trial-and-error or external walkthroughs. Issues included unclear telegraphing, a lack of hints, and arbitrary solutions, which made progression difficult and often removed the enjoyment.

Poor Voice Acting and Character Disconnect: Simon's voice actor is often perceived as too old for the character, creating a jarring disconnect. Additionally, the German voice acting suffers from inconsistent volume levels, flat delivery, and general poor quality across NPCs, affecting overall immersion.

Limited NPC Interaction and Dialogue: There are few interactive NPCs, and dialogue options are sparse and often limited, with choices sometimes disappearing prematurely. This contributes to a sense of a less engaging world and makes progression unclear without enough social interaction.

Overpriced for Content Offered: Many players feel the game is too expensive for the amount of content and value it provides, especially when compared to other adventure games on the market. This led to a perception that the price does not reflect the game's quality or length.

Poor Steam Deck Performance: The game experiences significant issues on the Steam Deck, including non-functional controls and noticeable blurriness. This negatively impacts the playability and overall experience for users on this specific platform.

Classic Point-and-Click with Spellcasting: Adhering to classic point-and-click adventure mechanics, the game primarily uses the left mouse button for control. A central gameplay element involves learning and casting three specific spells, which are crucial for solving puzzles and progressing, particularly during the multi-round ending sequence.

Prequel Story and Series Connection: The game functions as a prequel, exploring the origins of the story and its setting in 1993, prior to the events of the first game. It serves as both a standalone adventure and a narrative bridge, featuring familiar characters from the original series.

Indirect NPC Assistance: Some non-player characters provide help that is not always direct or obvious, requiring players to interpret their hints or actions to progress. This adds a layer of subtle interaction to the puzzle-solving.

Includes Fast Travel: The game incorporates fast-travel points, which helps streamline movement and reduce backtracking between its various locations, enhancing player convenience.

Limited Locations: The game features a relatively compact world, with its story and puzzles unfolding across only three distinct locations. This focused design might appeal to players who prefer less expansive environments.

Missing Vsync Option: Players have observed that the game lacks a Vsync option in its settings. The absence of this feature can result in screen tearing, negatively affecting visual quality for many users.

Unrealistic FPS Reported: One player reported an exceptionally high FPS of 2400. This highly improbable number suggests a potential bug in the game's FPS counter or an extreme exaggeration, providing little reliable information about actual game performance.

Highly recommended for genre fans: Players strongly recommend this game, especially to fans of classic and modern point-and-click adventure games. It is praised for its humor, ingenious puzzles, and nostalgic feel, making it suitable for both long-time genre enthusiasts and new players.

Mixed appeal for series fans: While many series fans are encouraged to play and express hope for future installments, some older fans note potential disappointment or suggest that new players might be let down. A common suggestion for fans is to consider purchasing on sale, possibly with a walkthrough ready.

Suggests waiting for discount: Several players recommend waiting for the game to be discounted before purchasing. One reviewer specifically suggests that a price point around €5 would be acceptable for the content offered.

Steam Deck Proton fix: For players on Steam Deck, it is recommended to switch to Proton. This suggests potential compatibility or performance issues when not using Proton.

Avoid Pony DLC: One reviewer specifically recommends against purchasing the Pony-DLC, implying it does not add significant value or is not worth the cost.

Strong Series Legacy & Fan Anticipation: Many players have deep nostalgic ties to the original Simon games, having played them in childhood. This led to high expectations, significant pre-release anticipation from the demo, and a strong desire for remakes or re-releases of older titles in the series.

Relatively Short Playtime: Players generally report the game to be on the shorter side, with a first playthrough often completed in well under 10 hours. This is a consistent observation regarding the overall game length.

Accessible for Newcomers, Solvable for Veterans: The game effectively caters to both new players, who won't feel lost despite series references, and experienced adventure game veterans, who find the puzzles satisfyingly solvable. It marks a good entry point for those new to point-and-click adventures.

Long, Challenging Development: The game experienced a prolonged and reportedly difficult development cycle, marked by changes in developers and publishers, and represents a new type of game for the team.

Speculated Tight Budget: Some players humorously speculated about the game potentially having a tight development budget, attributing a significant portion to the intro song. This is based on player conjecture rather than factual evidence.