I love this game, I just wish I could love it more.
Its lore and world design have so much charm it's mindblowing. I could hang text from any of the ingame tablets on my wall and it would work. It manages to convey a feeling of mystery so naturally and effortlessly, and it matches the tone of the game perfectly.
Unfortunately the puzzles are just too obtuse. I'm a puzzle gamer. I love puzzles that are too hard. The puzzles in this game are borderline impossible. It's just a few, to be fair, most of the puzzles are accessible if difficult. But those few kind of ruin the experience when you just get hardstuck and end up having to look up the answer. If I could clear my memory of this game and say "look, these puzzles are really hard, just keep beating your head against the wall until you figure it out because that moment will be extremely satisfying", I would. But I don't think there was ever a world where I would have put in the time the first go around.
The best way to play this game is to have a friend with you to give you hints. There's a nice guide on Steam, but it's really easy to just reveal the real answers right away because you're frustrated. That's what I ended up doing, and I basically breezed through the last couple zones because I couldn't be bothered with the puzzles. I regret it, but the alternative probably wasn't much more fun.
Despite its flaws I still really love the game. I absolutely recommend it, although you should probably abandon the idea of playing through it without hints for the puzzles. But if you're a fan of puzzles I do think you'll like it - just make sure you know your limits.
Its lore and world design have so much charm it's mindblowing. I could hang text from any of the ingame tablets on my wall and it would work. It manages to convey a feeling of mystery so naturally and effortlessly, and it matches the tone of the game perfectly.
Unfortunately the puzzles are just too obtuse. I'm a puzzle gamer. I love puzzles that are too hard. The puzzles in this game are borderline impossible. It's just a few, to be fair, most of the puzzles are accessible if difficult. But those few kind of ruin the experience when you just get hardstuck and end up having to look up the answer. If I could clear my memory of this game and say "look, these puzzles are really hard, just keep beating your head against the wall until you figure it out because that moment will be extremely satisfying", I would. But I don't think there was ever a world where I would have put in the time the first go around.
The best way to play this game is to have a friend with you to give you hints. There's a nice guide on Steam, but it's really easy to just reveal the real answers right away because you're frustrated. That's what I ended up doing, and I basically breezed through the last couple zones because I couldn't be bothered with the puzzles. I regret it, but the alternative probably wasn't much more fun.
Despite its flaws I still really love the game. I absolutely recommend it, although you should probably abandon the idea of playing through it without hints for the puzzles. But if you're a fan of puzzles I do think you'll like it - just make sure you know your limits.