Lorelei and the Laser Eyes feels like an anachronism. I don’t just mean this from how the game haphazardly scatters documents from 1847 and 2014 throughout the hotel set in 1962, or how it references multiple past eras of gaming with PS1 survival-horror fixed camera angles or DOS-inspired 1-bit adventure game segments hidden away on floppy disks, though these elements certainly play their part in creating what developer Simogo refers to as “collage of styles, ideas, and disparate inspirations.” No, what instantly caught my attention was how uncompromising yet thoughtful the game felt. In an era where most developers seem content to simply pay lip service to the great mystery/adventure games of old while over-simplifying their gameplay mechanics, Simogo seems to have figured out the formula of creating a final product that feels intricately designed, yet ultimately accessible.
I’ll admit that I’m not too familiar with Simogo’s previous work; the only other game I’ve played by them is Sayonara Wild Hearts. That said, I would not have immediately guessed that Lorelei was by the same developers from my first hour alone. In some ways, Lorelei presents an interesting foil to Sayonara. Sayonara’s persisting strength is its grasp on harmony: the epitome of what is essentially a playable music video, it’s pure and immediate gratification racking up points to the beat in this flashy and lush arcade game. On the other hand, Lorelei feels deliberately constructed to emphasize its dissonance. From the uncomfortably quiet manor clashing with the occasional audible off-screen disruption to the vibrating monochrome textures interspersed with low poly environment, nothing seems right in its place. It’s a much slower burn than Sayonara as well, with most players taking fifteen hours or more (in comparison to Sayonara’s two hour runtime) to navigate the sprawling hotel with no hand-holding provided whatsoever.
As different as these two titles appear however, they do have one thing in common: minimalism. For example, both games require just a d-pad/joystick and a single button to be played. Sayonara gets away with this because the available actions on input feel clearly telegraphed by the visuals and generally boil down to moving and timed dodges with the music. Lorelei similarly gets away with this because it deemphasizes more complex/technical interactions (i.e. the usage suite of adventure game verbs in look, touch, obtain, etc) with sheer puzzle intuition. Simogo describes this as forcing the player to “get a deeper understanding… and connection to [the world]” and just like Sayonara, “wanted the complexity of the game to revolve around this, and not dexterity.”
What makes this particularly impressive is how Simogo was able to strike a fair balance between simplicity and variety. According to the game’s development page, the game became “a very iterative toy box” where many different systems conceptualized over the game’s development cycle could interact and interplay with one another in different ways. Interestingly, I found that most of the solutions to these different puzzles were not that difficult or complex to determine. Even so, despite Lorelei’s simple controls and straightforward objective (figuring out passwords/key phrases to unlock new areas and information), the game is able to successfully obfuscate the means to achieve said objective by drastically changing the means in which information is presented to the player, for instance by using different camera angles and systems that allowed them to “change a lot of rendering parameters on the fly” from the aforementioned iterative toy box. Additionally, Simogo highlights key details from clues to ensure that players don’t get too confused, but leave enough ambiguity by never outright leading the players onto specific logic trains and refusing to provide any specific assistance (no in-game hint system and no specific feedback aside from telling players if they’re right/wrong). The result is a confident final product that understands the persisting strength of a good puzzle adventure game: a game that gives the player all the information they need to succeed while giving them the room to work out the connections themselves, and a game that constantly surprises the player with new opportunities to intuitively understand the world around them without ever feeling too frustrated by unfamiliar mechanics.
I do have to admit however, that there are a few instances where Lorelei’s minimalism and uncompromising nature can backfire. For instance, the lack of detailed player feedback aside from a right/wrong sound effect usually isn’t a significant deterrent, given that players can fine-tune most of the game’s one-variable solutions and are encouraged to tackle the hotel’s many branching paths and puzzles at their own pace, since they may not even have the pertinent information required and might have to work out other puzzles to obtain said information. However, certain late-game puzzles require multiple sets of answers (ex: a computer that requires three different types of phrases in a password), and it can be frustrating getting barricaded by such puzzles and not knowing which part of the answer requires more investigation. I’ll also echo some of the previous complaints regarding the controls, because while I appreciate that Simogo has crafted a base system where more complex controls aren’t required, I also don’t think that it’s a huge ask to add a “cancel/back” input for a second button. As a result, it takes significantly more scrolling to get out of menus or spamming random inputs to erroneously enter passwords if I want to back out of a puzzle, and the amount of wasted time per menu/puzzle really builds up over a playthrough.
While I did find the somewhat telegraphed ending slightly underwhelming given how elaborately the game wove its lore into its many clues, I nevertheless really savored my time with Lorelei. I might not have laser eyes, but I can certainly see this game’s approach upon system cohesion influencing many puzzle adventure games to come. As it stands, it’s another solid entry for Simogo’s innovative yet familiar library, and I’ll be thinking about its many secrets for quite some time. Perhaps it's finally time to delve into Device 6.
I’ll admit that I’m not too familiar with Simogo’s previous work; the only other game I’ve played by them is Sayonara Wild Hearts. That said, I would not have immediately guessed that Lorelei was by the same developers from my first hour alone. In some ways, Lorelei presents an interesting foil to Sayonara. Sayonara’s persisting strength is its grasp on harmony: the epitome of what is essentially a playable music video, it’s pure and immediate gratification racking up points to the beat in this flashy and lush arcade game. On the other hand, Lorelei feels deliberately constructed to emphasize its dissonance. From the uncomfortably quiet manor clashing with the occasional audible off-screen disruption to the vibrating monochrome textures interspersed with low poly environment, nothing seems right in its place. It’s a much slower burn than Sayonara as well, with most players taking fifteen hours or more (in comparison to Sayonara’s two hour runtime) to navigate the sprawling hotel with no hand-holding provided whatsoever.
As different as these two titles appear however, they do have one thing in common: minimalism. For example, both games require just a d-pad/joystick and a single button to be played. Sayonara gets away with this because the available actions on input feel clearly telegraphed by the visuals and generally boil down to moving and timed dodges with the music. Lorelei similarly gets away with this because it deemphasizes more complex/technical interactions (i.e. the usage suite of adventure game verbs in look, touch, obtain, etc) with sheer puzzle intuition. Simogo describes this as forcing the player to “get a deeper understanding… and connection to [the world]” and just like Sayonara, “wanted the complexity of the game to revolve around this, and not dexterity.”
What makes this particularly impressive is how Simogo was able to strike a fair balance between simplicity and variety. According to the game’s development page, the game became “a very iterative toy box” where many different systems conceptualized over the game’s development cycle could interact and interplay with one another in different ways. Interestingly, I found that most of the solutions to these different puzzles were not that difficult or complex to determine. Even so, despite Lorelei’s simple controls and straightforward objective (figuring out passwords/key phrases to unlock new areas and information), the game is able to successfully obfuscate the means to achieve said objective by drastically changing the means in which information is presented to the player, for instance by using different camera angles and systems that allowed them to “change a lot of rendering parameters on the fly” from the aforementioned iterative toy box. Additionally, Simogo highlights key details from clues to ensure that players don’t get too confused, but leave enough ambiguity by never outright leading the players onto specific logic trains and refusing to provide any specific assistance (no in-game hint system and no specific feedback aside from telling players if they’re right/wrong). The result is a confident final product that understands the persisting strength of a good puzzle adventure game: a game that gives the player all the information they need to succeed while giving them the room to work out the connections themselves, and a game that constantly surprises the player with new opportunities to intuitively understand the world around them without ever feeling too frustrated by unfamiliar mechanics.
I do have to admit however, that there are a few instances where Lorelei’s minimalism and uncompromising nature can backfire. For instance, the lack of detailed player feedback aside from a right/wrong sound effect usually isn’t a significant deterrent, given that players can fine-tune most of the game’s one-variable solutions and are encouraged to tackle the hotel’s many branching paths and puzzles at their own pace, since they may not even have the pertinent information required and might have to work out other puzzles to obtain said information. However, certain late-game puzzles require multiple sets of answers (ex: a computer that requires three different types of phrases in a password), and it can be frustrating getting barricaded by such puzzles and not knowing which part of the answer requires more investigation. I’ll also echo some of the previous complaints regarding the controls, because while I appreciate that Simogo has crafted a base system where more complex controls aren’t required, I also don’t think that it’s a huge ask to add a “cancel/back” input for a second button. As a result, it takes significantly more scrolling to get out of menus or spamming random inputs to erroneously enter passwords if I want to back out of a puzzle, and the amount of wasted time per menu/puzzle really builds up over a playthrough.
While I did find the somewhat telegraphed ending slightly underwhelming given how elaborately the game wove its lore into its many clues, I nevertheless really savored my time with Lorelei. I might not have laser eyes, but I can certainly see this game’s approach upon system cohesion influencing many puzzle adventure games to come. As it stands, it’s another solid entry for Simogo’s innovative yet familiar library, and I’ll be thinking about its many secrets for quite some time. Perhaps it's finally time to delve into Device 6.
It took me 14 hours and 8 pages of hand-written notes to solve this thing - and I loved every minute of it. None of the puzzles are especially difficult in themselves. But they hit you with so many different areas to investigate and avenues to explore that the resulting overwhelmed confusion prevents you from getting to the core of them. I spent most of Lorelei and the Laser Eyes understanding its internal logic. Which is exactly the right combination of actual logic and magical thinking to make it just work for me. The puzzles are of the "really good escape room"-type and manage to be quite unique despite their sheer amount. The visual design and atmosphere bring the entire experience home for me: The entire game is filled to the brim with eerie vibes. It's haunting. Its puzzles haunted me throughout my day. Just as Lorelei is haunted. And now, I'll leave the rest of the game's secrets to smarter people. Godspeed, discord servers of the world!
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.
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.
In the opening hours of Breath of the Wild, on the southeast edge of the Great Plateau, there's a ravine. Crossing it would give the player a direct path to one of their mandatory objectives.
Initially, this route seems impassable -- but, on the player's side of the ravine, there's a tree. The tree sits right near the edge, and it's just a touch taller than the ravine is wide. Nearby, an axe is lodged in a tree, just outside a building labelled "Woodcutter's House". The tree looks ready to topple in the direction opposite the axe at any moment.
Reading this, the solution to this problem seems obvious - take the axe, fell the tree at the edge of the ravine, and cross it. But to actually play this segment, and to piece the elements together for yourself, feels like a moment of intelligent problem-solving. It feels like you've cheated your way into a clever shortcut, even though this is a carefully-designed vignette, with a designer's hand nudging you towards an intended outcome.
Games-likers often seem obsessed with the idea of emergent or fringe solutions. Try typing "the designers never thought of this!" or "i can't believe the designers thought of this!" into your search engine of choice, and bask in the millions of identical-looking thumbnails.
Conversely, I feel like we often undervalue the experience of encountering a problem, feeling the hand (or the voice, or the mind, or the spirit) of a designer gently guiding the player towards a solution, and following them along for the journey. It's an experience that's a little more book/movie/song-esque than game-like, despite being fundamentally interactive, in that the player/reader/viewer/listener gives themselves up to the authorial voice of the artist for a moment. When we play games, there's always a conversation being held between the player and the designer, but in these moments, it is made tangible and laid bare.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is not a particularly hard puzzle game. It is not particularly weird, nor creative, nor thrilling, nor revelatory. However - every single one of its puzzles feels Designed. Solving the smaller puzzles feels like being in on a wry joke with the author; solving something larger feels like sharing in an intimately whispered secret.
This is a lot of words to say that none of the puzzles in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes are best-in-class, but all of them are Solid, Clean, and Designerly. Many of its best offerings can be solved on a pad of paper by someone who has no familiarity with the game at all. Pick this one up if you need a new and modern puzzle book to sit down with on a nice afternoon.
Initially, this route seems impassable -- but, on the player's side of the ravine, there's a tree. The tree sits right near the edge, and it's just a touch taller than the ravine is wide. Nearby, an axe is lodged in a tree, just outside a building labelled "Woodcutter's House". The tree looks ready to topple in the direction opposite the axe at any moment.
Reading this, the solution to this problem seems obvious - take the axe, fell the tree at the edge of the ravine, and cross it. But to actually play this segment, and to piece the elements together for yourself, feels like a moment of intelligent problem-solving. It feels like you've cheated your way into a clever shortcut, even though this is a carefully-designed vignette, with a designer's hand nudging you towards an intended outcome.
Games-likers often seem obsessed with the idea of emergent or fringe solutions. Try typing "the designers never thought of this!" or "i can't believe the designers thought of this!" into your search engine of choice, and bask in the millions of identical-looking thumbnails.
Conversely, I feel like we often undervalue the experience of encountering a problem, feeling the hand (or the voice, or the mind, or the spirit) of a designer gently guiding the player towards a solution, and following them along for the journey. It's an experience that's a little more book/movie/song-esque than game-like, despite being fundamentally interactive, in that the player/reader/viewer/listener gives themselves up to the authorial voice of the artist for a moment. When we play games, there's always a conversation being held between the player and the designer, but in these moments, it is made tangible and laid bare.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is not a particularly hard puzzle game. It is not particularly weird, nor creative, nor thrilling, nor revelatory. However - every single one of its puzzles feels Designed. Solving the smaller puzzles feels like being in on a wry joke with the author; solving something larger feels like sharing in an intimately whispered secret.
This is a lot of words to say that none of the puzzles in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes are best-in-class, but all of them are Solid, Clean, and Designerly. Many of its best offerings can be solved on a pad of paper by someone who has no familiarity with the game at all. Pick this one up if you need a new and modern puzzle book to sit down with on a nice afternoon.
"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.
One of the year's best so far. Aesthetically incredible, very smartly constructed narratively, and the types of puzzles included here might not be for everyone but they really worked for me. The structure and open ended nature of the manor/hotel is very smart as well, what in other cases would not be very interesting puzzles are set up to be more interesting when you need to explore other areas to find additional context and clues. Also - I've not often seen this trick, but Lorelei consistently does this thing where part 1 of the puzzle is just finding out a numerical code and is relatively simple, but then part 2 is actually figuring out how to input the code - every single time this brought a smile to my face, it's a really fun way to throw an extra twist on top of things.
I think this is only going to age better with time, could see it being heralded as an absolute cult classic in a few years.
I think this is only going to age better with time, could see it being heralded as an absolute cult classic in a few years.
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
If you found yourself feeling like the Resident Evil modern remakes lost some of the obscure puzzle charm of the originals, or if you're just a fan of a good escape room style puzzle game, this is the game you've been waiting for.
An unmatched aesthetic and puzzles that go above and beyond your wildest expectations. It'll leave you feeling like a madman and the smartest person that ever lived. Genuine GOTY contender.
An unmatched aesthetic and puzzles that go above and beyond your wildest expectations. It'll leave you feeling like a madman and the smartest person that ever lived. Genuine GOTY contender.
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.
Very cool in concept and design, but after a while it just felt like checking things off a list one after another in very rapid succession without much challenge besides finding my way around the damn hotel. Like at some point I got the gist of how the puzzles were gonna go and then it was basically connect the dots for the latter 2/3rds of the game. Not trying to sound conceited, but this stuff might be too up my alley, to the point where almost nothing took me more than a few seconds to figure out. The biggest stopping points were moments when I was grossly overthinking something, and the solution was much simpler than I was expecting - like I was giving them a bit too much credit. This same thing goes for the game's story, which is fun and cryptic, but ultimately has a lot less going on than you might initially imagine.
Aside from the puzzles/challenge, there are some very weird design choices that I don't understand. The start of the game warns you that you're gonna have to know a bunch of factual stuff and take a buttload of notes ... and then it proceeds to give you literal manuals on things like Roman Numerals and the Zodiac, and also record literally everything you see or read automatically and keep a running checklist of every puzzle you haven't finished that updates automatically. It's like they chickened out on all that more hardcore stuff halfway through development or something. Or maybe I was just playing on baby mode by accident?
Oh, and the other thing is the controls are inexcusable garbage. It seems so dumb to complain about something like that in a game like this, but it genuinely had a negative impact on my experience, and there is no good explanation for why they are the way they are. It's one analog directional stick and one button. One. So what that amounts to is no back button in menus, no dedicated map button (it takes between six and twelve button presses to get the map of the area you're in), no cycling backwards through options in complex puzzles, no keyboard support, and one button for all possible interactions with anything. Was this made for mobile originally? I have a twenty fucking buttons on my controller - get serious, people.
Anyway, there's lots to like and respect about everything going on in here, the puzzles, the story, the playful design. Any game that can pull off Last Year at Marienbad and 8 1/2 references without coming off as pretentious is a winner. It's cool that games like this are getting made. But this one could have been a little more challenging and a little less boneheaded-ly put together.
Aside from the puzzles/challenge, there are some very weird design choices that I don't understand. The start of the game warns you that you're gonna have to know a bunch of factual stuff and take a buttload of notes ... and then it proceeds to give you literal manuals on things like Roman Numerals and the Zodiac, and also record literally everything you see or read automatically and keep a running checklist of every puzzle you haven't finished that updates automatically. It's like they chickened out on all that more hardcore stuff halfway through development or something. Or maybe I was just playing on baby mode by accident?
Oh, and the other thing is the controls are inexcusable garbage. It seems so dumb to complain about something like that in a game like this, but it genuinely had a negative impact on my experience, and there is no good explanation for why they are the way they are. It's one analog directional stick and one button. One. So what that amounts to is no back button in menus, no dedicated map button (it takes between six and twelve button presses to get the map of the area you're in), no cycling backwards through options in complex puzzles, no keyboard support, and one button for all possible interactions with anything. Was this made for mobile originally? I have a twenty fucking buttons on my controller - get serious, people.
Anyway, there's lots to like and respect about everything going on in here, the puzzles, the story, the playful design. Any game that can pull off Last Year at Marienbad and 8 1/2 references without coming off as pretentious is a winner. It's cool that games like this are getting made. But this one could have been a little more challenging and a little less boneheaded-ly put together.
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)
An effortlessly stylish puzzle/adventure game from the developers of Device 6, Year Walk, and Sayonara Wild Hearts. Loved the largely monochromatic aesthetic, the Resident Evil-style fixed camera angles, and the metafictional cross-media fuckery (they don't have Remedy money so there isn't an entire live-action short film you can actually watch or anything like that, but the narrative is very concerned with films, sculptures, music, paintings, art installations, intricate little puzzle boxes, and of course video games).
As for the puzzles, this is definitely one for the Tunic/FEZ/Void Stranger sickos out there who love nothing more than scribbling feverishly into a notebook (or in my case, a Notepad document and MS Paint canvas on my second monitor). I had a ton of fun playing this alongside my brother and racking our collective brains trying to figure out some abstractly presented math problem or which of the many, many documents in our possession held the pivotal clue for solving a puzzle.
As for the puzzles, this is definitely one for the Tunic/FEZ/Void Stranger sickos out there who love nothing more than scribbling feverishly into a notebook (or in my case, a Notepad document and MS Paint canvas on my second monitor). I had a ton of fun playing this alongside my brother and racking our collective brains trying to figure out some abstractly presented math problem or which of the many, many documents in our possession held the pivotal clue for solving a puzzle.
Starring: Some weird dude who's probably David Lynch
I took a gamble on this game due to the glowing reviews and the likes of Sam Barlow highly recommending it. I won't lie that I was skeptical given Simogo's last game being Sayonara Wild Hearts which lacked interactivity despite its great style. Good thing I took a gamble because I hit the jackpot.
As with most other reviews for this game, I'll try to avoid giving much away because I believe going in with minimal expectations is wise. Needless to say, the game is a puzzle exploration game where you explore a hotel and try to unravel a bizarre mystery. I heard someone say describe this as "Resident Evil but with puzzles instead of zombies" and I think that's one of the most accurate descriptions. You come to be deeply familiar with the hotel as you explores its nooks and crannies and slowly open it up. The game is practically a rat's nest of information for various puzzles. Puzzles fall back on certain themes and ideas, but consistently force you to determine where the answer is hiding. It's a really cool method that feels incredibly intricate and encourages you to engross yourself in the game's setting.
I won't lie that I did look up a couple hints. The shortcut puzzles can be kinda hard to understand at times and I just felt as though staring at them for ages was not in the spirit of the experience. I did also look up an answer for the piano puzzle, as it felt a bit obtuse (all the information you need to solve it is in the room with you), and I did look up how to finally solve the supercomputer puzzle when I was about 98% of the way through it as I struggled to interpret some of the final pieces and wanted to wrap things up. You may view that as cowardly, I view it as "I gave it an honest try and didn't want to sit on the puzzle for ages".
I need to emphasize though that, for the majority of the runtime, I didn't look up any hints. I trusted that I could decipher things and would simply come back later if something didn't make sense. And that mostly worked! It was a constant stream of "Eureka!" moments that had me feeling clever as I slowly peeled away this game's layers.
Presentation is really cool with artful camera angles and a sharp use of reds in an otherwise monochromatic game. Controls are definitely a bit janky though. There are directional inputs, a start menu button, and an interaction button. That's it. So every single thing you do from accessing your recorded information to inputting numbers on a lock is done with basically one button. While I appreciate the attempt at minimalist design, it does result in some annoying navigation issues from time to time.
I do need to emphasize though that these control issues are a minor complaint when considering that this game is essentially the new gold standard for puzzle design. It's so deeply compelling with its narrative and puzzles interwoven and the ways in which it asks you to flip your thinking and re-assess what you know are so damn cool. Also, I just wish more games would utilize numerical puzzles like this.
Simogo have already developed an insanely large and well thought out title and I hope that we get another from them some time and also see this as the starting point for a new breed of puzzle design.
I took a gamble on this game due to the glowing reviews and the likes of Sam Barlow highly recommending it. I won't lie that I was skeptical given Simogo's last game being Sayonara Wild Hearts which lacked interactivity despite its great style. Good thing I took a gamble because I hit the jackpot.
As with most other reviews for this game, I'll try to avoid giving much away because I believe going in with minimal expectations is wise. Needless to say, the game is a puzzle exploration game where you explore a hotel and try to unravel a bizarre mystery. I heard someone say describe this as "Resident Evil but with puzzles instead of zombies" and I think that's one of the most accurate descriptions. You come to be deeply familiar with the hotel as you explores its nooks and crannies and slowly open it up. The game is practically a rat's nest of information for various puzzles. Puzzles fall back on certain themes and ideas, but consistently force you to determine where the answer is hiding. It's a really cool method that feels incredibly intricate and encourages you to engross yourself in the game's setting.
I won't lie that I did look up a couple hints. The shortcut puzzles can be kinda hard to understand at times and I just felt as though staring at them for ages was not in the spirit of the experience. I did also look up an answer for the piano puzzle, as it felt a bit obtuse (all the information you need to solve it is in the room with you), and I did look up how to finally solve the supercomputer puzzle when I was about 98% of the way through it as I struggled to interpret some of the final pieces and wanted to wrap things up. You may view that as cowardly, I view it as "I gave it an honest try and didn't want to sit on the puzzle for ages".
I need to emphasize though that, for the majority of the runtime, I didn't look up any hints. I trusted that I could decipher things and would simply come back later if something didn't make sense. And that mostly worked! It was a constant stream of "Eureka!" moments that had me feeling clever as I slowly peeled away this game's layers.
Presentation is really cool with artful camera angles and a sharp use of reds in an otherwise monochromatic game. Controls are definitely a bit janky though. There are directional inputs, a start menu button, and an interaction button. That's it. So every single thing you do from accessing your recorded information to inputting numbers on a lock is done with basically one button. While I appreciate the attempt at minimalist design, it does result in some annoying navigation issues from time to time.
I do need to emphasize though that these control issues are a minor complaint when considering that this game is essentially the new gold standard for puzzle design. It's so deeply compelling with its narrative and puzzles interwoven and the ways in which it asks you to flip your thinking and re-assess what you know are so damn cool. Also, I just wish more games would utilize numerical puzzles like this.
Simogo have already developed an insanely large and well thought out title and I hope that we get another from them some time and also see this as the starting point for a new breed of puzzle design.
Reminded me a lot of the book I wrote entirely while stoned in my early 20s
“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"
When the opening of a game insists I have a notepad, I know not only is time to get that big brain working but I’m probably going to enjoy myself.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (LATLE) is the latest release from Simogo, arguably the best developers of single player mobile phone focused games in the past, as that pocket of gaming has changed they’ve started moving into more big screen games and the transition has been buttery smooth.
Device-6 and Year Walk are cult classics, while Sayonara Wildhearts crossed the divide releasing on iOS and consoles came and was another beautiful experience which was as different to their previous games as they are from each other.
Simogo may not be the biggest name, but it’s one I (and you should) sit up and take notice of.
LATLE is no exception to this, to say it upfront, I loved this game, I enjoy the genre, loved the style, was taken on a fairly fun journey with its narrative and really grew to appreciate all the smart innovations the game has, playing with genre and playing with mechanics in a way which sometimes shows their mobile game heritage, in a positive light.
Notepad and pen beside you, the game starts you off as the female protagonist leaving her car outside of a large and slightly ominous looking hotel.
Immediately you can fiddle with things and make decisions and when you take a look in your car’s glove box LATLE shows how it is going to play around with the medium, fourth walls and the like by giving you instructions to the game within the game.
You’re entering a world of a puzzle game, and whilst puzzle game is definitely what genre LATLE is, it almost feels reductive.
I’ve seen some comparisons, format wise, to Professor Layton and I agree with that, but it is also a simplification.
Sure, much like Layton there are many puzzles scattered around the world, every door needs a key or has a code and to get those you probably need to solve a puzzle, some being maths, some being simple logic but unlike the Layton games every single one of these puzzles does tie directly into the theme.
As the game progresses this may not seem true at first, but recurring numbers, names, words and themes appear that help illustrate the feeling of place you are in.
Another key difference is that LATLE is for the most part, non-linear, the hotel is not an open-world but it is a large space that means if you come up to a lock you can’t quite open, a puzzle you don’t understand yet, cannot parse, it’s fine. Simply move somewhere else, find another room, another puzzle and have a go.
A feeling that often comes up when talking about puzzles in games are eureka moments, LATLE is full of them and it is also full of another feeling I have written about enjoying and that is a domino effect of these eurekas.
That lock you couldn’t open, well maybe the other puzzle you succeeded with gave you the key, more likely though, it gave you a clue to something else, which in turn gave you a new perspective on the puzzle you were stuck on first of all. Then in LATLE it’s quite likely behind that door is yet another puzzle that will either hold you up for a moment or will have been figured out before you’ve even seen it via information you gained three or four brain teasers ago.
LATLE’s non-linear structure allows for situations to commonly arise where you will discover something a few hours in, not have the ability to proceed past it but already have an idea at what you’re looking for or you’ll need to find out. Hours later, you will have almost forgotten about this only for it to leap back to the front of your mind as you solve a seemingly unconnected mystery.
The hotel is a labyrinthian or even maze-like design, a distinction the game itself will teach you if you don’t already know, and have you thinking about.
You progress through multiple floors, into different rooms, even outside to different places.
As you progress shortcuts, unlocked with puzzles, make this grand house a home and you quickly start getting used to where you are and how things work - however, it never ceases to surprise.
Everything in this hotel adds to its narrative, the room numbers, the decoration, they make you think about where you are, who each character is, when things happened and why. To further explain any of this would be untying a knot that is best left tight before you play, but I feel the need to bring up the game's story because not only did I find it intriguing, quite enjoyable if not as deep as I expected, I found it very clever that even when I had “figured it all out” the non-linear structure of the game did not ever spoil me - if it did, those things felt more like natural revelations and were never an annoyance.
Simogo’s mobile heritage shows its face in a couple of clear ways in this title.
The first is the art style. It could be argued that LATLE has a very simple look, monochrome with a touch of neon pink-red for those “laser” eyes and other details, this game’s looks are not about fidelity but it absolutely oozes with style.
It’s a look that doesn’t blow you away with how incredible the use of reflections, amount of polygons or textures are, but how stylish and incredible things can look with restrictions and great direction, a direction which does take a few unexpected but very welcome turns.
This is all backed up by some wonderful music, the closing credits being something I have listened to away from gaming, that not only is drenched in the cool stylings of the game but somehow also echoes some of the narrative oddities of the game.
The other clear mobile game inspiration is in the way the game controls. Simogo’s aim is for their games to be as accessible as possible. LATLE uses any stick or d-pad for movement and all the buttons for the same simple “action” command, which the game shows what you will be doing on screen to never be too confusing.
I have seen a lot of hate for this scheme, and I understand. Most people who game even casually have learnt some language about games that is almost the same in everything you play and for me the one thing LATLE is lacking is a simple “cancel/back” button.
The game never locks you in too tightly, but sometimes misclicking one thing sends you on a path of tapping or scrolling through just to go back, only seconds of annoyance but this will happen often if your mind is (like mine) programmed to have a back button in games and those seconds will easily add up to minutes over the whole experience.
They are things I enjoyed about the scheme, one key thing was that I could play one-handed.
Using the left stick and the left shoulder button to take actions left my right hand free to scribble and flick through the pages of notes I had been taking. After a few hours this became natural and enjoyable.
Although I will admit, playing any game in between meant that when I returned to Lorelei and the Laser Eyes there was always a moment of readjustment.
I think there is one very simple solution to the issues people may have with the controls, options. Choosing from one simple or super-simple control scheme would release frustration that I can see a more stubborn person quitting what is a fantastic game over.
While I am speaking about small grievances I will mention one other thing and that is navigating the world.
Now the protagonist's walk speed is good, the camera is always cinematic and only occasionally did I find myself bumping into things due to the monochrome nature of LATLE’s look.
However, as the hotel starts to get larger as you unlock more doors that good walk speed does become a little annoying and Simogo has added a mechanic to help that.
Coffee.
A small mechanical spoiler, but around the hotel are espresso machines, which once you find a mug, can drink from and you will move faster for a while (and eventually need the toilet).
My personal issue here though, the discovery of that damn mug was deeper into the game than I would like. Perhaps I have been thwarted by non-linear gaming here and I’m sure speed runners or the like will find a way to get the coffee cup quicker but I wish it was something you’d discover an hour in.
The game has the metres for caffeine and bladder from the start of the game, so it’s hidden in plain sight as is.
I’d like to finish this review off with one small-complaint bundled within a lot of praise.
Lorelei and the Laser Eye’s puzzle design is fantastic, the hotel feels like a great big toy box, the puzzles feel simultaneously contained while connected.
If you need to unlock a safe, everything you need “physically” is within the space you are in most cases and the game will tend to be very clear if you’re looking for a physical key.
The key’s that are not within these spaces though are knowledge, and all of that knowledge you can learn within the game itself. Like many other puzzle games before it, LATLE uses roman numerals, astrology, codes, weird symbols but any of these you may not know about, the game lets you discover and does a fantastic job of logging it for you.
Not just in “memories” which are documents you can check at any point without having to travel (an issue I had with the recent Botany Manor) but the game keeps a log of objectives and the order you have been doing things, something that greatly helps if you’ve spent an extended time away from it.
One small thing the puzzle design doesn’t completely lack, but I would have preferred more of is feedback. There is a success and failure sound effect but sometimes for example a code may be something you type but the game will not give you a character limit.
Perhaps that is realistic and fair, I agree but a key puzzle to the game is a multi-levelled one of these and while that size of code input is fairly rare the feedback of failure is just too simple.
You know you have done wrong, but you don’t know where or how and although personally I never found myself bashing my head against things like this for too long, the lack of specificity could be frustrating, I love the lack of hand-holding, I appreciate the courage to make things not too easily guessable, but even just a more specifically timed sound cue would have gone a long way.
Overall though as I said earlier, if you find yourself in front of an insurmountable wall you can turn around and return later. I have played many puzzle games but rarely do any give the perfect balance of making you feel stupid and then later, the world’s smartest person as much as Lorelei and the Laser Eyes does.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes (LATLE) is the latest release from Simogo, arguably the best developers of single player mobile phone focused games in the past, as that pocket of gaming has changed they’ve started moving into more big screen games and the transition has been buttery smooth.
Device-6 and Year Walk are cult classics, while Sayonara Wildhearts crossed the divide releasing on iOS and consoles came and was another beautiful experience which was as different to their previous games as they are from each other.
Simogo may not be the biggest name, but it’s one I (and you should) sit up and take notice of.
LATLE is no exception to this, to say it upfront, I loved this game, I enjoy the genre, loved the style, was taken on a fairly fun journey with its narrative and really grew to appreciate all the smart innovations the game has, playing with genre and playing with mechanics in a way which sometimes shows their mobile game heritage, in a positive light.
Notepad and pen beside you, the game starts you off as the female protagonist leaving her car outside of a large and slightly ominous looking hotel.
Immediately you can fiddle with things and make decisions and when you take a look in your car’s glove box LATLE shows how it is going to play around with the medium, fourth walls and the like by giving you instructions to the game within the game.
You’re entering a world of a puzzle game, and whilst puzzle game is definitely what genre LATLE is, it almost feels reductive.
I’ve seen some comparisons, format wise, to Professor Layton and I agree with that, but it is also a simplification.
Sure, much like Layton there are many puzzles scattered around the world, every door needs a key or has a code and to get those you probably need to solve a puzzle, some being maths, some being simple logic but unlike the Layton games every single one of these puzzles does tie directly into the theme.
As the game progresses this may not seem true at first, but recurring numbers, names, words and themes appear that help illustrate the feeling of place you are in.
Another key difference is that LATLE is for the most part, non-linear, the hotel is not an open-world but it is a large space that means if you come up to a lock you can’t quite open, a puzzle you don’t understand yet, cannot parse, it’s fine. Simply move somewhere else, find another room, another puzzle and have a go.
A feeling that often comes up when talking about puzzles in games are eureka moments, LATLE is full of them and it is also full of another feeling I have written about enjoying and that is a domino effect of these eurekas.
That lock you couldn’t open, well maybe the other puzzle you succeeded with gave you the key, more likely though, it gave you a clue to something else, which in turn gave you a new perspective on the puzzle you were stuck on first of all. Then in LATLE it’s quite likely behind that door is yet another puzzle that will either hold you up for a moment or will have been figured out before you’ve even seen it via information you gained three or four brain teasers ago.
LATLE’s non-linear structure allows for situations to commonly arise where you will discover something a few hours in, not have the ability to proceed past it but already have an idea at what you’re looking for or you’ll need to find out. Hours later, you will have almost forgotten about this only for it to leap back to the front of your mind as you solve a seemingly unconnected mystery.
The hotel is a labyrinthian or even maze-like design, a distinction the game itself will teach you if you don’t already know, and have you thinking about.
You progress through multiple floors, into different rooms, even outside to different places.
As you progress shortcuts, unlocked with puzzles, make this grand house a home and you quickly start getting used to where you are and how things work - however, it never ceases to surprise.
Everything in this hotel adds to its narrative, the room numbers, the decoration, they make you think about where you are, who each character is, when things happened and why. To further explain any of this would be untying a knot that is best left tight before you play, but I feel the need to bring up the game's story because not only did I find it intriguing, quite enjoyable if not as deep as I expected, I found it very clever that even when I had “figured it all out” the non-linear structure of the game did not ever spoil me - if it did, those things felt more like natural revelations and were never an annoyance.
Simogo’s mobile heritage shows its face in a couple of clear ways in this title.
The first is the art style. It could be argued that LATLE has a very simple look, monochrome with a touch of neon pink-red for those “laser” eyes and other details, this game’s looks are not about fidelity but it absolutely oozes with style.
It’s a look that doesn’t blow you away with how incredible the use of reflections, amount of polygons or textures are, but how stylish and incredible things can look with restrictions and great direction, a direction which does take a few unexpected but very welcome turns.
This is all backed up by some wonderful music, the closing credits being something I have listened to away from gaming, that not only is drenched in the cool stylings of the game but somehow also echoes some of the narrative oddities of the game.
The other clear mobile game inspiration is in the way the game controls. Simogo’s aim is for their games to be as accessible as possible. LATLE uses any stick or d-pad for movement and all the buttons for the same simple “action” command, which the game shows what you will be doing on screen to never be too confusing.
I have seen a lot of hate for this scheme, and I understand. Most people who game even casually have learnt some language about games that is almost the same in everything you play and for me the one thing LATLE is lacking is a simple “cancel/back” button.
The game never locks you in too tightly, but sometimes misclicking one thing sends you on a path of tapping or scrolling through just to go back, only seconds of annoyance but this will happen often if your mind is (like mine) programmed to have a back button in games and those seconds will easily add up to minutes over the whole experience.
They are things I enjoyed about the scheme, one key thing was that I could play one-handed.
Using the left stick and the left shoulder button to take actions left my right hand free to scribble and flick through the pages of notes I had been taking. After a few hours this became natural and enjoyable.
Although I will admit, playing any game in between meant that when I returned to Lorelei and the Laser Eyes there was always a moment of readjustment.
I think there is one very simple solution to the issues people may have with the controls, options. Choosing from one simple or super-simple control scheme would release frustration that I can see a more stubborn person quitting what is a fantastic game over.
While I am speaking about small grievances I will mention one other thing and that is navigating the world.
Now the protagonist's walk speed is good, the camera is always cinematic and only occasionally did I find myself bumping into things due to the monochrome nature of LATLE’s look.
However, as the hotel starts to get larger as you unlock more doors that good walk speed does become a little annoying and Simogo has added a mechanic to help that.
Coffee.
A small mechanical spoiler, but around the hotel are espresso machines, which once you find a mug, can drink from and you will move faster for a while (and eventually need the toilet).
My personal issue here though, the discovery of that damn mug was deeper into the game than I would like. Perhaps I have been thwarted by non-linear gaming here and I’m sure speed runners or the like will find a way to get the coffee cup quicker but I wish it was something you’d discover an hour in.
The game has the metres for caffeine and bladder from the start of the game, so it’s hidden in plain sight as is.
I’d like to finish this review off with one small-complaint bundled within a lot of praise.
Lorelei and the Laser Eye’s puzzle design is fantastic, the hotel feels like a great big toy box, the puzzles feel simultaneously contained while connected.
If you need to unlock a safe, everything you need “physically” is within the space you are in most cases and the game will tend to be very clear if you’re looking for a physical key.
The key’s that are not within these spaces though are knowledge, and all of that knowledge you can learn within the game itself. Like many other puzzle games before it, LATLE uses roman numerals, astrology, codes, weird symbols but any of these you may not know about, the game lets you discover and does a fantastic job of logging it for you.
Not just in “memories” which are documents you can check at any point without having to travel (an issue I had with the recent Botany Manor) but the game keeps a log of objectives and the order you have been doing things, something that greatly helps if you’ve spent an extended time away from it.
One small thing the puzzle design doesn’t completely lack, but I would have preferred more of is feedback. There is a success and failure sound effect but sometimes for example a code may be something you type but the game will not give you a character limit.
Perhaps that is realistic and fair, I agree but a key puzzle to the game is a multi-levelled one of these and while that size of code input is fairly rare the feedback of failure is just too simple.
You know you have done wrong, but you don’t know where or how and although personally I never found myself bashing my head against things like this for too long, the lack of specificity could be frustrating, I love the lack of hand-holding, I appreciate the courage to make things not too easily guessable, but even just a more specifically timed sound cue would have gone a long way.
Overall though as I said earlier, if you find yourself in front of an insurmountable wall you can turn around and return later. I have played many puzzle games but rarely do any give the perfect balance of making you feel stupid and then later, the world’s smartest person as much as Lorelei and the Laser Eyes does.
Tremendous in its concept, execution and atmosphere. A puzzle game that combines open world-ish puzzle solving with the "open up paths" gameplay of something like Resident Evil 2 Remake leading to an absolute masterpiece.
Lorelei's genius comes from its structure: the Hotel & its surroundings are your play area for the entire game and are all interconnected. One of the first puzzles I encountered while playing the game was solved 12 hours deep as part of the ending sequence.
You'd think that this vast availability of options would lead to confusion as to which path can actually be taken, which solutions are possible based on current information, but it really doesn't because the game operates on the following principle: if you're looking at a puzzle and are confused about how it works, then you probably don't have the resources to solve it. Luckily, the game has so many avenues open that you can always jump to another question you have, slowly ticking off puzzles, opening doors and going further and further.
A real life notebook is required for this game. It took me 13 pages of notes to finish the game and that's with very conservative use of space. The in-game information menu is fantastic in its own right but cannot be accessed during puzzles and therefore only convenient for fixing your irl notes for the most part.
Aesthetically, the game rocks. Its art direction is gorgeous and so peculiar that it makes its most interesting pieces of imagery really pop. The music is fantastic as well.
Lorelei is definitely 2024's "off-radar" standout so far and continues a very, very strong indie release year along with Balatro, Pacific Drive and Animal Well.
8.7/10
Lorelei's genius comes from its structure: the Hotel & its surroundings are your play area for the entire game and are all interconnected. One of the first puzzles I encountered while playing the game was solved 12 hours deep as part of the ending sequence.
You'd think that this vast availability of options would lead to confusion as to which path can actually be taken, which solutions are possible based on current information, but it really doesn't because the game operates on the following principle: if you're looking at a puzzle and are confused about how it works, then you probably don't have the resources to solve it. Luckily, the game has so many avenues open that you can always jump to another question you have, slowly ticking off puzzles, opening doors and going further and further.
A real life notebook is required for this game. It took me 13 pages of notes to finish the game and that's with very conservative use of space. The in-game information menu is fantastic in its own right but cannot be accessed during puzzles and therefore only convenient for fixing your irl notes for the most part.
Aesthetically, the game rocks. Its art direction is gorgeous and so peculiar that it makes its most interesting pieces of imagery really pop. The music is fantastic as well.
Lorelei is definitely 2024's "off-radar" standout so far and continues a very, very strong indie release year along with Balatro, Pacific Drive and Animal Well.
8.7/10
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a puzzle masterpiece, soaked in the black and reds of a haunted past and paranoid espressos. A surreal experience that interpellates us through the screen and into the scratches of page after page of symbols, numbers, and patterns from ball-point ink. It burrows until we can’t look away, crystallizing until we start to see it with LASER eyes. In that liminal void are the sinister reflections of smudged memories and the unrelenting trauma of a past we can’t let go of - a gripping foray into the maze of the interior gothic. A purgatory we must unearth. It’s as beautiful and charming as it is maddening, with my mind steadily forming a sense of aphophenia as it yearned to decode and decode and decode. Truly a special experience I won’t soon forget.
Haven’t felt this strongly about an independent release since Signalis.
Truth recovery: 96.5%
American dollars: 82/100
Play time: 19:37
Haven’t felt this strongly about an independent release since Signalis.
Truth recovery: 96.5%
American dollars: 82/100
Play time: 19:37
Lorelei has a very interesting setup that fails to live up to the expectations it sets.
I really enjoyed how non-linear most of the game is. The mansion the game takes place in is large and open, there's several ways to progress right from the start. The game spreads out puzzles you can solve immediately and puzzles that'll take additional context pretty evenly throughout the world, giving the game a feeling of complex interconnectedness. Whenever I'd get access to a new part of the mansion I'd be paying heavy attention to whatever I came across, trying to recontextualize it in the context of puzzles I'd come across previously and seemingly couldn't solve.
This gameplay loop felt very satisfying for a while but puzzles are usually much simpler than they appear. The solution to puzzles will often be just noticing a code you saw earlier fits the number of inputs on a lock.
For example, I'd come across a lock let's me input a 7 digit code but nothing in the room would point to the answer. Later on I'd solve another puzzle and the reward is a slip of paper with a 7 digit code on it. Then it'd click I had somewhere to input that code, and I'd walk back to the 7 digit lock and punch the code in. This wasn't satisfying to solve and it sadly makes up a majority of the puzzle's solutions.
There were still a few really good puzzles, especially the game's "main" one. Solving that made me wish the rest of the game's big puzzles were that complex, but nothing else even comes close.
There are parts of the game that are downright tedious. The game has manual saves and in certain sections you can get game overs. There are save points everywhere and you know when you'll encounter potential game overs, but this makes those sections feel especially pointless.
I might be a dumbass for running into an extremely slow moving enemy without saving, but the punishment of losing progress feels too harsh and the tension this provides isn't worth it. Plus the game randomizes a good chunk of puzzles, so I found myself having to resolve some after dying because the solution changed upon reloading.
Can't say much without spoiling it but the story fell flat for me and failed to have any impact. I think it's presented in an interesting way throughout the game but the actual climax is lacking.
I really enjoyed how non-linear most of the game is. The mansion the game takes place in is large and open, there's several ways to progress right from the start. The game spreads out puzzles you can solve immediately and puzzles that'll take additional context pretty evenly throughout the world, giving the game a feeling of complex interconnectedness. Whenever I'd get access to a new part of the mansion I'd be paying heavy attention to whatever I came across, trying to recontextualize it in the context of puzzles I'd come across previously and seemingly couldn't solve.
This gameplay loop felt very satisfying for a while but puzzles are usually much simpler than they appear. The solution to puzzles will often be just noticing a code you saw earlier fits the number of inputs on a lock.
For example, I'd come across a lock let's me input a 7 digit code but nothing in the room would point to the answer. Later on I'd solve another puzzle and the reward is a slip of paper with a 7 digit code on it. Then it'd click I had somewhere to input that code, and I'd walk back to the 7 digit lock and punch the code in. This wasn't satisfying to solve and it sadly makes up a majority of the puzzle's solutions.
There were still a few really good puzzles, especially the game's "main" one. Solving that made me wish the rest of the game's big puzzles were that complex, but nothing else even comes close.
There are parts of the game that are downright tedious. The game has manual saves and in certain sections you can get game overs. There are save points everywhere and you know when you'll encounter potential game overs, but this makes those sections feel especially pointless.
I might be a dumbass for running into an extremely slow moving enemy without saving, but the punishment of losing progress feels too harsh and the tension this provides isn't worth it. Plus the game randomizes a good chunk of puzzles, so I found myself having to resolve some after dying because the solution changed upon reloading.
Can't say much without spoiling it but the story fell flat for me and failed to have any impact. I think it's presented in an interesting way throughout the game but the actual climax is lacking.
The best puzzle game since Golden Idol, which was the best puzzle game since Outer Wilds, which was the best puzzle game since Obra Dinn.
Hands-down one of the year's very best. Takes the satisfyingly intricate puzzle-box design of Resident Evil's Spencer Mansion and embeds it within a cryptic art-game for notebook-wielding puzzle sickos. Its mysteries are hidden under layers of artifice within a fragmented narrative that structurally and thematically mirrors the labyrinth at the game's heart. It's all tied up in a bow by a stylishly moody monochrome 60s aesthetic covered in flashes of red. Don't miss it
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.
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.
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!
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.
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, Echoes of the Eye & the original Ace Attorney trilogy being among them.
"Lorelei and the Laser Eyes" is developed by Simogo, 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 the big questions you will likely have during the game, 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, 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 the big questions you will likely have during the game, 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.
Functioning as a game-long puzzle box, including a piece-it-together narrative which becomes a puzzle of its own in the game's coda, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes demonstrates the rewards of an experience which never once holds the player by the hand except in providing goals to complete. Comparisons to Outer Wilds have been made (as with another 2024 release, Animal Well), yet the sole similarity is in a broad belief the player can go through the world and its obstacles without training wheels or handrails. Simogo accomplishes a beautiful layering of logic points to identify symbols, numbers, and repeated solutions to create the intricate paths by which the player can solve more and more puzzles, and by the end of the game these connections aid not only comprehension in solving the hotel's puzzles but those of the obtuse narrative. Genre conventions of the Gothic setting—a location full of secrets—and a developed examination of art and the artist, criticisms of auteurism and commercialization, enjoin a meta perspective to provide frequent humor and an interrupted dirge to a game whose gameplay is as much the story as any of the interstitial cutscenes. Though it is a few steps from the magnificent Void Stranger, Lorelei is another recent example of how the medium and its flexibilities in form while adhering to recognizable gameplay formulas can still innovate by simply trusting the player in their own capabilities as a not stupid, to be pandered to consumer of another product.
Lorelei has extremely stylish art direction and a solid, emotionally grounded story. I absolutely love that this is a pen-and-paper kind of game. Be warned, this is a HARD puzzle game-- I started playing this a full week after it was released, and there wasn't a single walkthrough or guide online that had puzzle hints for anything past my personal 3-hour mark.
I love when games don't hold your hand, and appreciated the game's confidence that I'd just figure it out. But, I found myself feeling a bit too lost and frustrated at multiple points, especially at "bottleneck" spots where one or more puzzles blocked forward progress. A good handful of the puzzles were just a bit too convoluted for me, with too many hoops to jump through and not enough context to solve organically.
The game is, to its credit, very good at misdirection, with many puzzles being far simpler to solve than they seem at first (or second, or third) glance. It's easy when playing through Lorelei to get hung up on your own assumptions of what a puzzle is about. By the end, I found myself wishing this game had some sort of gentle hint system, just to help redirect you through those moments to avoid having to put the game down and ask someone online for help! Even if the hints themselves were riddles to solve, that would be more helpful than nothing at all.
I think the game would have been stronger if it had been about half as long, though the length of your playthrough will be determined by how many puzzles you get stumped by. (Mine was 23 hours, so Lorelei unfortunately overstayed her welcome.) But, there is so much to love here in this game, and it really stuck the landing for me at the end. I will be thinking about it for a long time.
I love when games don't hold your hand, and appreciated the game's confidence that I'd just figure it out. But, I found myself feeling a bit too lost and frustrated at multiple points, especially at "bottleneck" spots where one or more puzzles blocked forward progress. A good handful of the puzzles were just a bit too convoluted for me, with too many hoops to jump through and not enough context to solve organically.
The game is, to its credit, very good at misdirection, with many puzzles being far simpler to solve than they seem at first (or second, or third) glance. It's easy when playing through Lorelei to get hung up on your own assumptions of what a puzzle is about. By the end, I found myself wishing this game had some sort of gentle hint system, just to help redirect you through those moments to avoid having to put the game down and ask someone online for help! Even if the hints themselves were riddles to solve, that would be more helpful than nothing at all.
I think the game would have been stronger if it had been about half as long, though the length of your playthrough will be determined by how many puzzles you get stumped by. (Mine was 23 hours, so Lorelei unfortunately overstayed her welcome.) But, there is so much to love here in this game, and it really stuck the landing for me at the end. I will be thinking about it for a long time.
still haven't found a use for the tampon