Recursed is easily one of the most clever puzzle games I've played. It takes a few ideas from computer science -- largely variable scope and the titular recursion, and makes them into an extremely fun puzzler with just the tiniest bit of platforming. The most basic concept is that each room of the game exists in a box. When you go into a box, everything in it is instantiated anew. So, if you need two keys in the box you are currently in, and have a box with a key in it, you go in and remove a key, drop it, then go back for another. From there, it introduces a few others tools dealing with scoping or, in other words, 'rules of existence'. For example, only one copy of an enchanted object exists. If you move it in a room, then that's where it'll be when you come back. If you take it out of a room, it won't be there again unless you bring it back. And so on. It then takes every one of these tools and asks you to take it figure out different logical extremes throughout the puzzles. Unironically, Recursed is all of the fun parts of an algorithms course, but packaged in a way that's cute and accessible, avoiding the need for any knowledge of mathematical notation, formalisms, and so on.
I found the game fairly challenging, but nothing was too extreme. That said, I'm a computer scientist, so my background had me well prepared for what Recursed asked of me. Even so, I think it's something that any puzzle fan can enjoy, as long as you're willing to stretch your mind in ways that very few others games ask you to. There were a few puzzles where I ended up taking notes on how to reach a certain state -- some of the set ups could be rather involved, and it was easy to end up in an unwinnable position. In fact, that's my only real criticism of the game: it could be frustrating to have to redo a 30 step process after making a mistake. Still, it wasn't so bad once I just started taking notes on the longer puzzles, and there really weren't too many of them.
I completed all of the regular courses, many of the (extremely cool) 'hidden routes', and got the main ending. I had a great time the whole way through, and will likely be back to find the 'hidden routes' I missed the first time through and play the side puzzles at some point. I consider Recursed to be among the all time greats of the Puzzle genre, and highly recommend it!
I found the game fairly challenging, but nothing was too extreme. That said, I'm a computer scientist, so my background had me well prepared for what Recursed asked of me. Even so, I think it's something that any puzzle fan can enjoy, as long as you're willing to stretch your mind in ways that very few others games ask you to. There were a few puzzles where I ended up taking notes on how to reach a certain state -- some of the set ups could be rather involved, and it was easy to end up in an unwinnable position. In fact, that's my only real criticism of the game: it could be frustrating to have to redo a 30 step process after making a mistake. Still, it wasn't so bad once I just started taking notes on the longer puzzles, and there really weren't too many of them.
I completed all of the regular courses, many of the (extremely cool) 'hidden routes', and got the main ending. I had a great time the whole way through, and will likely be back to find the 'hidden routes' I missed the first time through and play the side puzzles at some point. I consider Recursed to be among the all time greats of the Puzzle genre, and highly recommend it!