- Exceptional puzzle design and variety
- Balanced and rewarding difficulty curve
- Eerie, immersive atmosphere and art style
- Puzzles lack clarity and intuition
- Excessive backtracking and late-game grind
- Poor control and menu navigation issues
Emotions
Players frequently cite unclear, obscure, or overly complex puzzle design as a major source of frustration. Many puzzles lack sufficient hints or feedback, leading to excessive backtracking, brute-forcing, or getting stuck. Additionally, poor control schemes, clunky UI (e.g., lack of a 'back' button), and technical issues like progress-blocking glitches exacerbate the difficulty and disrupt the experience.
The game delivers strong satisfaction through well-designed puzzles that reward logical thinking and persistence. Players enjoy the 'aha' moments when solving complex puzzles, especially those tied to narrative payoffs or interconnected mechanics. The balance of challenge and fairness, along with the sense of progression, contributes to a deeply rewarding experience for those who engage with its systems.
Players derive enjoyment from the game's engaging puzzle-solving mechanics and atmospheric storytelling. The fair and intuitive design of many puzzles, combined with the immersive world and narrative integration, creates a steady stream of positive feedback. Cooperative play and the variety of puzzles also enhance the fun factor, making the experience feel dynamic and rewarding.
The game earns appreciation for its artistic and narrative design, including its stylized visuals, immersive atmosphere, and intelligent puzzle mechanics. Players praise the originality and depth of the game's world, as well as the love and craftsmanship evident in its development. The combination of strong aesthetics, thematic depth, and innovative gameplay resonates strongly with its audience.
Disappointment stems from the game's failure to meet expectations, particularly in its later stages. Players cite a weak or unsatisfying story resolution, puzzles that devolve into frustration or tedium, and technical issues like poor UX or lack of polish. The transition from engaging puzzles to convoluted or nonsensical design near the end leaves many feeling that the game's potential was wasted.
Verdict
Mostly positive
Summary
Positive 85% · Negative 15%. Score: 15 / 100
Positives:
- The game features highly engaging, interconnected, and well-balanced puzzles that cater to both casual and hardcore puzzle enthusiasts. The variety and complexity of puzzles, along with their integration into the narrative, are frequently praised.
- The difficulty of puzzles is well-balanced, offering a mix of easy, intermediate, and challenging puzzles that feel fair and rewarding. Players appreciate the lack of 'moon logic' and the ability to progress without external guides.
- The game excels in creating a surreal, spooky, and immersive atmosphere through its sound design, music, and visuals. The ambiance is frequently described as haunting, unsettling, and reminiscent of classic survival horror.
- The game’s striking monochrome visuals with strategic use of color, neo-noir aesthetic, and detailed art direction create a unique and immersive atmosphere. The visual style is consistently highlighted as a standout feature.
- The game avoids jump scares and combat, instead offering a noir detective feel with slight horror elements. This makes it accessible to a broader audience while still maintaining a spooky atmosphere.
Negatives:
- Many players report frustration with unclear puzzle clues, unintuitive input methods, and inconsistent rules. Puzzles often require excessive backtracking or external guides, detracting from the experience.
- Late-game puzzles require excessive backtracking, overwhelming information retention, and repetitive tasks. This creates fatigue and deters casual players.
- Some puzzles rely on Roman numerals, zodiac symbols, or other Western-specific knowledge, alienating non-Western players and creating unfair difficulty spikes.
- Controls are described as clunky, unintuitive, and lacking essential features like a 'back' button or dedicated menu navigation. This creates unnecessary friction, especially during puzzle-solving.
- The story is criticized for being convoluted, abstract, and difficult to follow. Players struggle to connect dots due to untranslated text, dropped side stories, and an overly obscure delivery.
Gameplay:
- The game integrates puzzles tightly with its story, requiring players to solve mysteries and uncover clues to progress. The narrative is often fragmented, cryptic, or surreal, adding depth to the puzzle-solving experience.
- Puzzles often require external knowledge (e.g., Roman numerals, Greek symbols, or math) or encourage players to use tools like pen and paper. This bridges in-game clues with real-world problem-solving.
- Puzzles are designed to feed into one another, often requiring revisiting areas or connecting clues across different mechanics. This creates a non-linear, web-like structure that rewards exploration and backtracking.
- Puzzles rely heavily on exploring the game world, gathering documents, and interpreting environmental details. This encourages thorough investigation and rewards attention to detail.
- Players can explore the game world freely, solving puzzles in varying orders. Progression is gated by puzzle chains but allows for open-ended discovery, with shortcuts and optional puzzles enhancing replayability.
Performance:
- Multiple players report the game failing to launch properly, experiencing visual corruption, or crashing entirely due to corrupted files. This is a critical technical issue preventing gameplay.
- Players encountered camera operation issues on Steam Deck, though some resolved it using Steam Input. This suggests platform-specific input handling problems.
- A technical issue where the game produces audio but no visuals, rendering it unplayable despite no immediate crash. This may indicate rendering pipeline failures.
- The game runs well on Steam Deck with low battery consumption, indicating successful optimization for handheld play despite other technical issues.
Recommendations:
- The game is repeatedly recommended for fans of challenging puzzle games, escape rooms, and narrative-driven experiences like *Myst*, *The Witness*, and *Return of the Obra Dinn*. It appeals to players who enjoy slow discovery, complex riddles, and minimal hand-holding.
- Players highlight the game's Lynchian storytelling, emotional depth, and atmospheric immersion. It is recommended for those who appreciate narrative-driven experiences with room for imagination and avant-garde influences.
- The game is frequently described as a masterpiece, one of the best puzzle games of the decade, and a must-play for fans of the genre. It is compared favorably to classics like *Myst* and *Year Walk*.
- The game is explicitly not recommended for casual players or those seeking action-oriented experiences. It requires significant time investment, patience, and often external hints or guides for unclear puzzles.
- The game can be enjoyed both as a solo experience in a quiet environment or as a group activity, with some players recommending it for cooperative puzzle-solving or shared discovery.
Miscellaneous:
- The game draws comparisons to films and games like *Immortality*, *Sayonara Wild Hearts*, *TUNIC*, and *Mulholland Drive*, reflecting its unique artistic and narrative style. Reviewers highlight thematic inspirations from directors like David Lynch and Fellini.
- The story deeply explores themes of art, value, obsession, memory, and perception, resonating with players who appreciate philosophical and introspective narratives. Modern art and its implications are also discussed.
- The game is estimated to take 15-20 hours to complete and requires strong memory or note-taking to progress without abandoning puzzles or storylines.
- Specific details like the number '1847' and bonus currency themed as 'American Dollars' are highlighted as memorable or intriguing elements of the game’s world-building.
- The game relies on text-based dialogue without voice acting, which may impact immersion for some players but aligns with its minimalist design.
