Loved it by the end, but it took a while to get going.

I think compared to Cyan's previous games the puzzles are generally more straightforward than usual, and I never hit a point where I felt like the solution required so much note taking/comparison that using a guide to simplify even parsing what the "problem" was was necessary. I found myself slightly disappointed by how there wasn't as many "eureka!" moments for me while playing as I had in Myst or Obduction, but at the same time I still enjoyed solving them. There's something to be said for puzzles being more about base-level logic and spacial awareness/navigation as well - it definitely helped keep the pacing pleasingly brisk.

The environments are also huge and lovingly detailed/designed, as you'd expect of Cyan. The game looks wonderful and the puzzles at several points are on a scale that'd qualify as a "setpiece" moment in Obduction for me - there's fewer overall to solve, the game is a lot shorter in general really, but I definitely found myself impressed by the scope of some of them.

The main area of the game I had issues with for most of its duration was the narrative. I found it consistently a letdown how little there is in the way of "lore" through most of the game - compared to Obduction, the "cast" you grow to learn about is tiny (I'd say more comparable to Myst) and the actual backstory is delivered mostly via monologues triggered at set points from the mysterious woman speaking to you rather than finding notes, journals, and other articles plus cues in the environments. I went in wanting to get lost in the world of the game and finding out about it as I explored, but it never really scratched that itch for me.

And then the ending happened and suddenly everything clicked into place and the emotional impact of it was tremendous compared to the level of investment I felt in it before. While I still think the game should and could have fleshed out the array of characters alluded to but never "seen" throughout it, I can't say I left it still unsatisfied with the story.

I can see why this game has proved to be somewhat divisive with Cyan's fanbase but for me personally I had a very good time with it and left it feeling more than satisfied.

Overall I enjoyed it but...

This would have to be the easiest game from Cyan I've played and I think it's due to the one dimensional nature of the gameplay. You get given an item called the adjunct, a gauntlet which acts as a key that allows you to interact with objects in the world. Aside from 1 or 2 exceptions it's the only way of interacting so you don't have to pay any attention to details within the world and instead just look for the slot to put the adjunct. This means you can quite easily fluke a lot of this game just by walking around and randomly interacting with things. They do manage to pull off some interesting things with that one mechanic though. However I felt the upgrades you get for it as your progress were underutilised.

Unlike other Cyan games before it, there's no note taking necessary. There's no clues or symbols to take note of. There's barely anything to read or listen to or memorise. I felt a bit disappointed about that because that's what Cyan games are known for and that was my expectations going into it.

The worlds they created did capture that awe inspiring but mysterious cyan look and feel so I was happy about that. I enjoyed exploring the worlds. I found the puzzles to be decent enough albeit not as challenging as I was expecting.

Unfortunately this game has performance issues and a few bugs. Very choppy framerate but with FSR and lowering a few settings I managed to make it acceptable for the most part. There were a couple of occasions I got stuck in the terrain and had to reload my save. There was also one occasion where it let me go somewhere without a way to get back out, requiring a reload.

Man, a lot wrong here, game was buggy as hell and one puzzle on multiple occasions required I hit the "teleport somewhere safe" button because it just outright broke. The story is very very mid, guessed the twist from the first hours, not well written during and awkwardly voice acted. The world is beautiful but then you get with the ai generated shit and go "hmmmmmm" and move on. Just meh, not great, not the worst, just meh

Update: Just learned via reading the credits "we used AI content!" speel, the voice acting is apparently entirely AI which fully explains why it sucked ass huh! Fucking god damn (review was original 2 stars)

i simp for cyan but this was just alright. gorgeous worlds and fun puzzles, but missing a lot of the "cyan magic" imo. barely any books/notes to read. audio-log exposition from a single narrator felt weak. general story and climax felt cool but should've been executed better. i like the world they built, but i think it had poor world-building. also worth noting it was WILDLY buggy, including an issue where a third of the game was experienced without the narrator, the only source of story lmao. but my score doesn't reflect performance/bug issues.

would still recommend as it's priced reasonably anyway. just wished it was better.