If there’s any genre that can immediately sound MORE appealing these days by coupling itself with an open world, it’s the puzzle game. Not only does a non-linear structure ensure some pressure relief on the brain valve when it comes to inevitably getting stuck, but there’s always a promise being made by open world puzzlers that what you’re doing is simply one branch of a larger tree, and that coalescence of everything is the ultimate reward for mastery of those seemingly disparate mechanics.
I try to avoid overtly structured reviews, but the design of Sensorium is practically begging for segmented thoughts. I’m sorry, but I decided to give into that part of my brain that always wants to make reviews worse but easier and more fun to write. Forgive me!
Touch:
The most “familiar” set of puzzles, essentially sliding blocks like every 6th Generation action-adventure game had, albeit with the game’s logic gate system topping each like a garnish. The final puzzle in this one is a bit of a bastard, and I think the gnarly difficulty spike is partially to blame (still a good puzzle tho!). Generally though, intuitive and straightforward, and the late-game remix of these puzzles are mostly great (minus one, which I guess is the curse of touch). IN SUMMATION: 3.5 DEKU STICKS OUT OF 5
Sight:
Sight’s premise is simple: there is a grid of buttons, figure out which ones are to be pressed. This area’s best ideas are really good, utilizing almost entirely visual cues, which is always impressive to me. Despite a few easy stinkers, I think of this one more fondly than touch due to its peaks being higher. IN SUMMATION: 4 BLUE SQUARES OUT OF 5
Hearing:
Listen. I think I like this area simply because I got to flex my semi-trained ear and grace through it by partially using my relative pitch. I reckon it might be more challenging and/or tedious for people who don’t practice music.
This area DEFINITELY hearkens back to the infamous jungle segment of The Witness, though I’d say this one is more reasonable in its execution. I suppose now is a good time to point out that this game, in contrast to, say, The Witness, is pretty short and a vastly more casual experience. Admittedly, this area is a victim of that, it being somewhat shallow and containing a mechanic that gets better use in the late-game. IN SUMMATION: 3 PEE BOTTLES OUT OF 5
Taste:
Oh man... I don’t envy the creator of this game for having the task of gamifying taste of all things, but the infantile onramp of this mechanic and the very weak finale puzzle should’ve made them realize that their swing was a little /too/ ridiculous for the final product. The puzzles themselves make enough sense, and it eventually gets some utility, but it is handily the weakest open-world segment as both a concept and design.
There’s an unlockable dev museum in the game, and Tad Cordle is pleasantly generous with BTS anecdotes of the game’s development there. They mentioned in the taste area that the original idea was to outright dodge any need to implement a taste mechanic by having a dead NPC having done most of it for you, and as strange as that might sound, reading about it immediately had me wondering how interesting something of that nature would’ve been to see. This, however, was dead in the water almost immediately. IN SUMMATION: 2 GOAT BALLS OUT OF 5
Smell:
It’s funny, taste is such a foreign sensation to acquiesce into something like logic puzzles, but at least there’s some avenues that’d make sense: recipes, nutrition, flavor profiles, just to name a few that came to mind. Smell, in comparison, is almost laughably abstract. However, using smell’s tie to memory and a few ballsy design choices, this one ends up being the cleverest area of the bunch... it’s so clever, in fact, that I’m going to avoid talking more about it. Just know that it’s my favorite despite also being the shortest at a whopping 1 whole puzzle. IN SUMMATION: 4.5 ZAZA EXPERTS OUT OF 5
FINAL SCORE: 17/25
My (JOKE) tally might sound harsh, but it doesn’t factor in the finale, which is 10 larger-scale puzzles that remix and combine each sense’s main mechanic, mostly to great effect. On top of that, there’s a post-game which leads to that dev museum I brought up earlier, and while those puzzles are arguably inessential and relatively esoteric, they’re at least interestingly so. It’s games like this that make me seriously regret having a restrictive rating system, let alone a rating system at all. I’m not about to develop some stalwart defense of this game compared to The Witness, its only real contemporary as far as I’m aware and a MUCH more involved and messy game to tackle. This is one that I want to praise specifically because of the more utilitarian aspects of my time with it - it’s short, I paid 5 bucks on sale for it, but it’s far from insubstantial. It’s a puzzle game, for god sake.
I developed a real Sokoban Fatigue from an app store’s influx of cheap, uninspiring puzzle games that all stem from the same principles, so I find it genuinely amusing that there’s a small-scale open world puzzle game, one that benefits from that smaller scale, manages to still be playfully varietal, and, in this combination, finds comfort in just... being. You know what, this game isn’t even getting a rating. Is it kino? I don’t fucking know, are advent calendars kino? Is a visit from your grandpa kino? Get a grip.
I try to avoid overtly structured reviews, but the design of Sensorium is practically begging for segmented thoughts. I’m sorry, but I decided to give into that part of my brain that always wants to make reviews worse but easier and more fun to write. Forgive me!
Touch:
The most “familiar” set of puzzles, essentially sliding blocks like every 6th Generation action-adventure game had, albeit with the game’s logic gate system topping each like a garnish. The final puzzle in this one is a bit of a bastard, and I think the gnarly difficulty spike is partially to blame (still a good puzzle tho!). Generally though, intuitive and straightforward, and the late-game remix of these puzzles are mostly great (minus one, which I guess is the curse of touch). IN SUMMATION: 3.5 DEKU STICKS OUT OF 5
Sight:
Sight’s premise is simple: there is a grid of buttons, figure out which ones are to be pressed. This area’s best ideas are really good, utilizing almost entirely visual cues, which is always impressive to me. Despite a few easy stinkers, I think of this one more fondly than touch due to its peaks being higher. IN SUMMATION: 4 BLUE SQUARES OUT OF 5
Hearing:
Listen. I think I like this area simply because I got to flex my semi-trained ear and grace through it by partially using my relative pitch. I reckon it might be more challenging and/or tedious for people who don’t practice music.
This area DEFINITELY hearkens back to the infamous jungle segment of The Witness, though I’d say this one is more reasonable in its execution. I suppose now is a good time to point out that this game, in contrast to, say, The Witness, is pretty short and a vastly more casual experience. Admittedly, this area is a victim of that, it being somewhat shallow and containing a mechanic that gets better use in the late-game. IN SUMMATION: 3 PEE BOTTLES OUT OF 5
Taste:
Oh man... I don’t envy the creator of this game for having the task of gamifying taste of all things, but the infantile onramp of this mechanic and the very weak finale puzzle should’ve made them realize that their swing was a little /too/ ridiculous for the final product. The puzzles themselves make enough sense, and it eventually gets some utility, but it is handily the weakest open-world segment as both a concept and design.
There’s an unlockable dev museum in the game, and Tad Cordle is pleasantly generous with BTS anecdotes of the game’s development there. They mentioned in the taste area that the original idea was to outright dodge any need to implement a taste mechanic by having a dead NPC having done most of it for you, and as strange as that might sound, reading about it immediately had me wondering how interesting something of that nature would’ve been to see. This, however, was dead in the water almost immediately. IN SUMMATION: 2 GOAT BALLS OUT OF 5
Smell:
It’s funny, taste is such a foreign sensation to acquiesce into something like logic puzzles, but at least there’s some avenues that’d make sense: recipes, nutrition, flavor profiles, just to name a few that came to mind. Smell, in comparison, is almost laughably abstract. However, using smell’s tie to memory and a few ballsy design choices, this one ends up being the cleverest area of the bunch... it’s so clever, in fact, that I’m going to avoid talking more about it. Just know that it’s my favorite despite also being the shortest at a whopping 1 whole puzzle. IN SUMMATION: 4.5 ZAZA EXPERTS OUT OF 5
FINAL SCORE: 17/25
My (JOKE) tally might sound harsh, but it doesn’t factor in the finale, which is 10 larger-scale puzzles that remix and combine each sense’s main mechanic, mostly to great effect. On top of that, there’s a post-game which leads to that dev museum I brought up earlier, and while those puzzles are arguably inessential and relatively esoteric, they’re at least interestingly so. It’s games like this that make me seriously regret having a restrictive rating system, let alone a rating system at all. I’m not about to develop some stalwart defense of this game compared to The Witness, its only real contemporary as far as I’m aware and a MUCH more involved and messy game to tackle. This is one that I want to praise specifically because of the more utilitarian aspects of my time with it - it’s short, I paid 5 bucks on sale for it, but it’s far from insubstantial. It’s a puzzle game, for god sake.
I developed a real Sokoban Fatigue from an app store’s influx of cheap, uninspiring puzzle games that all stem from the same principles, so I find it genuinely amusing that there’s a small-scale open world puzzle game, one that benefits from that smaller scale, manages to still be playfully varietal, and, in this combination, finds comfort in just... being. You know what, this game isn’t even getting a rating. Is it kino? I don’t fucking know, are advent calendars kino? Is a visit from your grandpa kino? Get a grip.