Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a puzzle game unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Swedish developer Simogo, which has been innovating in the genre since at least 2013’s Year Walk, has crafted an immaculate interactive mystery dripping with style, rich with an enthralling story to unravel, and chock full of masterfully designed puzzles to obsess over. The game’s logic-heavy mechanics will immediately draw parallels to Lucas Pope’s seminal Return of the Obra Dinn. But just as that game’s innovations and influence made it a common point of reference for critics when reviewing games that followed, I can only assume we will start seeing critics drawing comparisons to Lorelei in much the same way. Simogo’s accomplishment is a step forward for not only the puzzle genre but video games as a whole.
“There’s a thesis at play in the game that is connecting the high and low arts and is going, look, ‘There is actually a huge similarity between the puzzle-box mansion of a Resident Evil and an art installation"
I think my family thought I was going mad with all the notes I was taking while playing this.
Based on that you can probably tell whether you'll love or hate this game.
Based on that you can probably tell whether you'll love or hate this game.
It's like one big escape room. Some really good mysteries and flipping of the script, but also it does get really repetitive after a while, especially if you miss something crucial.
Additionally, as will probably come to light with future comments, it has one pretty obvious fatal flaw - there is no back button. And it's pretty near inexcusable. I gave it a pass for the first few hours, because I thought it was going to use this lack of back button in gameplay, but it really doesn't. There is no reason not to have a back button, especially since so many of these pieces of media take so long to access with the lack of one.
Anyway, the central mystery is pretty entertaining, and I always adore a game that requires you to have a notepad nearby. It communicates a lot of its puzzles very cleanly, but some of them seem to just be "oh, okay, this number goes here too", without too much of a reason why they should be linked, other than "well, you haven't used it yet, so you might as well try to put it there".
Again, I do think this is a great game (3.5/5 for me), but there are quite a few flaws holding back what would otherwise be an incredibly innovative staple of the puzzle genre.
Just because my above comment seems more negative than my overall opinion of it might be - it's a very interesting game. Check it out if you like escape rooms, and if you don't mind backtracking and an annoying lack of back button. If you crave what is overall quite a high level of quality escape room puzzles, with a central mystery that is dark and surreal, then this is the game for you.
I definitely was thrilled by it to start off with, but there were just too many hitches that by the end, it far outstayed its welcome. BUT I still enjoyed it a lot and may have binged it over an entire weekend, but there were plenty of times I was just throwing my hands up into the air in disbelief.
Play it if you like escape rooms and don't mind the possibility of getting stuck, or some light flow issues.
Additionally, as will probably come to light with future comments, it has one pretty obvious fatal flaw - there is no back button. And it's pretty near inexcusable. I gave it a pass for the first few hours, because I thought it was going to use this lack of back button in gameplay, but it really doesn't. There is no reason not to have a back button, especially since so many of these pieces of media take so long to access with the lack of one.
Anyway, the central mystery is pretty entertaining, and I always adore a game that requires you to have a notepad nearby. It communicates a lot of its puzzles very cleanly, but some of them seem to just be "oh, okay, this number goes here too", without too much of a reason why they should be linked, other than "well, you haven't used it yet, so you might as well try to put it there".
Again, I do think this is a great game (3.5/5 for me), but there are quite a few flaws holding back what would otherwise be an incredibly innovative staple of the puzzle genre.
Just because my above comment seems more negative than my overall opinion of it might be - it's a very interesting game. Check it out if you like escape rooms, and if you don't mind backtracking and an annoying lack of back button. If you crave what is overall quite a high level of quality escape room puzzles, with a central mystery that is dark and surreal, then this is the game for you.
I definitely was thrilled by it to start off with, but there were just too many hitches that by the end, it far outstayed its welcome. BUT I still enjoyed it a lot and may have binged it over an entire weekend, but there were plenty of times I was just throwing my hands up into the air in disbelief.
Play it if you like escape rooms and don't mind the possibility of getting stuck, or some light flow issues.
saw a big window in a hallway and thought "i've played resident evil, you're not going to get me with that shit."
still got me.
still got me.
I'm just going to rewrite this after finishing the game cause my smooth ass brain formed wrinkles and I ACTUALLY BEAT IT. To preface my puzzle experience is very minimal i've 100%'ed games like Tunic and The Witness, with a sprinkle of hidden object games but other than that its not my genre of choice. Now I see Simogo, the LEGENDS of making good games put out cryptic teasers and eventually a trailer for their new puzzle game coming off of the momentum of the goated Sayonara Wild Hearts. So i picked it up day 1 and expected a leisurely tour through this manor solving logic puzzles and im stuck. So ya the game threw so much at me I got tangled in all the notes and I got stuck, this wouldnt be the first time this would happen also, but the moment I untangled my thoughts and progressed was euphoric. As im solving these puzzles, im floored at the visuals, sounds and vibe this game just emits. The puzzles themselves I really wanna make myself feel better and say they are hard, but even though some are easier than others they are really fun to figure out and solve, especially the later ones. The story is soaked in this thick veil that you can only see blotches and that process of making out whats going on isnt the easiest as its hidden behind cryptic wording and out-of-order sequencing, but piecing it together is as satisfying as everything else this game has. Oh and the godlike Trio (Jonathan Eng and Daniel Olsen and Linnea Olsson) coming back to create a phenomenal soundtrack is the cherry on top. This is a contender for GOTY for me, even of all time to be honest and it comes from major Simogo bias but even that aside, this game knows what it wants to bring to the table and its made to perfection, or simply just another banger by Simogo
good game but ended up being a mixed bag. the puzzles are very creative and satisfying but some turn repetitive. the narrative felt non present for a long stretch of the early game which is a shame bc the writing and presentation of the story is strong and it lets you puzzle the narrative together, however the ending knocks over a lot of that. its a commonly hated trope so i assume other ppl will likely feel the same. theres a lot of subtext here tho so maybe im missing sth.
lastly the controls are awfully inconvenient, especially for menuing which is a big part of the game. theres a stylistic reason for this but its just such a nuisance.
i sound overly negative here but the puzzles can be very good, i was just expecting more out of the story.
lastly the controls are awfully inconvenient, especially for menuing which is a big part of the game. theres a stylistic reason for this but its just such a nuisance.
i sound overly negative here but the puzzles can be very good, i was just expecting more out of the story.
"I can't see shit."
I have a few quibbles (why aren't the uncrossed-out mental notes at the top of the list), but I very much enjoyed finding my way to the center of Lorelei, despite not being a puzzle kind of girl. I half-filled my FF7 Rebirth Original Soundtrack Stamp notebook with unintelligible notes, and what more can I say than that.
I have a few quibbles (why aren't the uncrossed-out mental notes at the top of the list), but I very much enjoyed finding my way to the center of Lorelei, despite not being a puzzle kind of girl. I half-filled my FF7 Rebirth Original Soundtrack Stamp notebook with unintelligible notes, and what more can I say than that.
A Salvador Dali-themed Escape Room in video game form. Some very odd control decisions make it feel like a mobile game.
Incredibly fun puzzler, for which I basically had to whip out a Miro board, and probably half the playtime is me figuring shit out on that said board.
The best indie game I've played in the last couple of years -- great brain teaser puzzles focused around a really narrow set of answers/clues, integrated in a (lightly) myst-esque way into the setting, reasonably well paced, some clever stuff. The text throughout the game is competently written, but the Plot (and to a lesser extent setting) is exceptionally hokey.
brain tickling
Oh man, do NOT sleep on Lorelei and the Laser Eyes! One of the finest puzzle/escape room games I've ever played. Having a game to tear into with pen and paper is something I really needed even after Animal Well, and I was not disappointed in the slightest. There are very very small issues - the amount of backtracking was a little tedious, and there is no back button in the menus of the game. But if these are things that are unlikely to bother you, then I wholeheartedly recommend giving Lorelei a shot. If you plan on playing this, stop reading reviews. Run don't walk to the Steam page!
initially i buried the lede, but i'm angry enough that i won't: this is a story david cage would write wrapped in a game good enough that he would hate every second of it.
lorelei and the laser eyes is a flawless dollhouse construction of beautiful puzzleboxes. the art and design is excellent and when it pulls a gimmick it pulls it excellently. it pushes, dramatically, towards one-upping the mechanical center of outer wilds' climax (with several more moving parts, each with a highlights mathmania's worth of fun little tricks to solve).
the problem is that the game also wants to one up the emotional climax of outer wilds, and it doesn't know what the fuck a human being is. the best it can offer you is a mannequin, with a mannequin of that same mannequin off to the side, in the corner, winking solemnly. it is a sad joke, an attempt at a gut punch so limp that it made me the angriest i've been at a video game all year. it is rare that i am this impressed by a video game i feel for a moment i might actually hate.
the worst part is that i know these motherfuckers can do the work. there is good writing in many inches of the margins here, and, besides, they've made one bonafide goddamn video game narrative masterpiece (device 6, a much better game than this overall) so it's all the more disappointing.
at least the end credits song is basically another sayonara wild hearts track.
probably the most angry i've been at a video game in years. hell, even twelve minutes was funny to think about.
lorelei and the laser eyes is a flawless dollhouse construction of beautiful puzzleboxes. the art and design is excellent and when it pulls a gimmick it pulls it excellently. it pushes, dramatically, towards one-upping the mechanical center of outer wilds' climax (with several more moving parts, each with a highlights mathmania's worth of fun little tricks to solve).
the problem is that the game also wants to one up the emotional climax of outer wilds, and it doesn't know what the fuck a human being is. the best it can offer you is a mannequin, with a mannequin of that same mannequin off to the side, in the corner, winking solemnly. it is a sad joke, an attempt at a gut punch so limp that it made me the angriest i've been at a video game all year. it is rare that i am this impressed by a video game i feel for a moment i might actually hate.
the worst part is that i know these motherfuckers can do the work. there is good writing in many inches of the margins here, and, besides, they've made one bonafide goddamn video game narrative masterpiece (device 6, a much better game than this overall) so it's all the more disappointing.
at least the end credits song is basically another sayonara wild hearts track.
probably the most angry i've been at a video game in years. hell, even twelve minutes was funny to think about.
Didnt really know anything about this game going in other than 1) its published by annapurna and 2) its a game involving puzzles and patterns and ciphers and mysteries, aka a game for me. I did not expect to be as into this game as I was.
This is a really effective puzzle game, once you get going it completely ensnares you in its gameplay loop. There keep being new crumb trails to follow both in the puzzles you solve and the mystery you unravel. You probably need to take some notes while playing this which is a plus in my book.
The central mystery is incredibly intriguing (if pretentious, but i forgive it), and much of my gameplay time was spent reading and re-reading notes i found to try and piece together some tangible narrative, but it was not until the end that (most of) the full picture became clear (which I didnt mind, and honestly at that point i wouldve been happy NOT to get explicit answers from the game)
Obviously the one big flaw that many people have already talked about is the bizarre control scheme, especially when the player has no option to set custom controls. This is a weird choice and causes some frustration and confusion, but i personally didnt find it that detrimental to my enjoyment (plus i really truly got used to it. still a bad design choice, but tolerable)
This is a really effective puzzle game, once you get going it completely ensnares you in its gameplay loop. There keep being new crumb trails to follow both in the puzzles you solve and the mystery you unravel. You probably need to take some notes while playing this which is a plus in my book.
The central mystery is incredibly intriguing (if pretentious, but i forgive it), and much of my gameplay time was spent reading and re-reading notes i found to try and piece together some tangible narrative, but it was not until the end that (most of) the full picture became clear (which I didnt mind, and honestly at that point i wouldve been happy NOT to get explicit answers from the game)
Obviously the one big flaw that many people have already talked about is the bizarre control scheme, especially when the player has no option to set custom controls. This is a weird choice and causes some frustration and confusion, but i personally didnt find it that detrimental to my enjoyment (plus i really truly got used to it. still a bad design choice, but tolerable)
Playing through "Lorelei and the Laser Eyes" is an experience I will long to relive. Very few video games have made me feel the way this game did, with Immortality, The Outer Wilds & the original Ace Attorney games being among them.
"Lorelei and the Laser Eyes" is developed by Simogo AB, hot off the heels of their previous game "Sayonara Wild Hearts", which could not be any more different in its tone & gameplay.
The story is difficult to discuss without spoilers, but I will say that the mystery had me completely sucked in during the 21 hours it took me to finish it. There are two layers to the story of "Lorelei". Despite the very artsy facade, there is a literal story being told here that does provide satisfying answers to most of the obvious questions, even going out of its way to spell things out for you during the finale. Beneath that layer, however, is an extremely complicated rumination on technology, art, capitalism, the audience's perspective vs. that of the artist and so forth. Symbols & how meaning is assigned to them is a heavy motif through the game, and are beautifully integrated into the actual puzzle solving.
The gameplay format of "Lorelei" is comparable to the early Resident Evil games, with the game's main location - the Hotel Lethz Jahr - being highly reminiscent of the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1. The key distinction between the two implementations of the Survival Horror format, is that Lorelei strips out the genre's typical combat and resource management, and focuses wholly on puzzles. There are two main categories of puzzles in this game. "Lock-and-key" puzzles ala Resident Evil, where you read a piece of evidence and have to match it with a "lock" somewhere else in the game. The more interesting category is the collection of abstract, logic puzzles where the directive is intuiting the logic of the puzzle itself. These all manifests through all the fake movie posters, weird locks, keypads, printers etc. that all abide by some strange, but intuitive logic. Notably, these puzzles will most likely require you to keep a notepad to track all the information not stored in your "Photographic Memory".
Figuring out the answer to the final puzzle is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done in a video game. The 2nd & 3rd components of the solution in particular, and the path to figuring them out, seems outright bizarre to anyone who hasn't played it, but will make sense to you since the game does such a good job of training you to pick up on subtle patterns.
I really cannot criticise any aspect of the game, aside from some miscommunication on how the red maze works. Yes, the lack of a 'back button' in menus and during puzzles is annoying, but I can't help but respect the developers for fully committing to it, even if I don't fully understand why it was made.
Lorelei & the Laser Eyes is easily my GOTY for 2024, and I would be seriously impressed if anything, even my beloved Silksong, manages to eclipse it. It's already been to my list of favourites.
STRONG recommend to any puzzle game lovers.
"Lorelei and the Laser Eyes" is developed by Simogo AB, hot off the heels of their previous game "Sayonara Wild Hearts", which could not be any more different in its tone & gameplay.
The story is difficult to discuss without spoilers, but I will say that the mystery had me completely sucked in during the 21 hours it took me to finish it. There are two layers to the story of "Lorelei". Despite the very artsy facade, there is a literal story being told here that does provide satisfying answers to most of the obvious questions, even going out of its way to spell things out for you during the finale. Beneath that layer, however, is an extremely complicated rumination on technology, art, capitalism, the audience's perspective vs. that of the artist and so forth. Symbols & how meaning is assigned to them is a heavy motif through the game, and are beautifully integrated into the actual puzzle solving.
The gameplay format of "Lorelei" is comparable to the early Resident Evil games, with the game's main location - the Hotel Lethz Jahr - being highly reminiscent of the Spencer Mansion from Resident Evil 1. The key distinction between the two implementations of the Survival Horror format, is that Lorelei strips out the genre's typical combat and resource management, and focuses wholly on puzzles. There are two main categories of puzzles in this game. "Lock-and-key" puzzles ala Resident Evil, where you read a piece of evidence and have to match it with a "lock" somewhere else in the game. The more interesting category is the collection of abstract, logic puzzles where the directive is intuiting the logic of the puzzle itself. These all manifests through all the fake movie posters, weird locks, keypads, printers etc. that all abide by some strange, but intuitive logic. Notably, these puzzles will most likely require you to keep a notepad to track all the information not stored in your "Photographic Memory".
Figuring out the answer to the final puzzle is one of the most satisfying things I have ever done in a video game. The 2nd & 3rd components of the solution in particular, and the path to figuring them out, seems outright bizarre to anyone who hasn't played it, but will make sense to you since the game does such a good job of training you to pick up on subtle patterns.
I really cannot criticise any aspect of the game, aside from some miscommunication on how the red maze works. Yes, the lack of a 'back button' in menus and during puzzles is annoying, but I can't help but respect the developers for fully committing to it, even if I don't fully understand why it was made.
Lorelei & the Laser Eyes is easily my GOTY for 2024, and I would be seriously impressed if anything, even my beloved Silksong, manages to eclipse it. It's already been to my list of favourites.
STRONG recommend to any puzzle game lovers.