Lorelei and the Laser Eyes assessment: A pocket book puzzler with spooky vibes

I believe the advertising and marketing for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes may need carried out it a little bit of a disservice. Once you watch the trailer for the primary time, you’re left with the impression of some form of game-shaped media of unsure style and elegance. They draw focus to its avant-garde French New Wave-film aesthetic and its vaguely spooky, borderline survival-horror vibes. That’s all properly and good — and all of that’s current and accounted for within the recreation — however Simogo’s Lorelei and the Laser Eyes actually is an old school, mind-bending puzzle recreation.

Lorelei’s story is informed with minimal exposition and no introduction — you play a mysterious lady who arrives on the Lodge Letztes Jahr with a letter in her purse and a mission even she doesn’t appear to know. You, the participant, should assist this lady piece collectively who she is and why she’s right here, and what precisely it’s the lodge’s unusual denizens need together with her. None of this data comes with out effort — once I say, “piece together,” I imply within the almost-literal, jigsaw puzzle sense.

The lodge itself is replete with puzzles in each single room, each lock and protected requiring you to unravel a mind teaser with the intention to entry its rewards. The sport tracks your progress and catalogs each scrap of data you obtain inside its menu (which is defined in-universe as the principle character’s eidetic reminiscence). So you may entry any clues you’ll have discovered elsewhere within the lodge at a second’s discover. There’s a form of Metroidvania really feel to it, within the sense that you just usually gained’t have the instruments to unravel every puzzle instantly, that means you’ll need to backtrack as soon as you discover the related clues.

Lorelei (or LatLE) is what I prefer to name a pocket book puzzler, within the sense that it’s greatest so that you can have a pocket book readily available always to maintain observe of the clues. The sport does an excellent job of conserving clues and data obtainable always, however most gamers will doubtless want their very own system for conserving observe of which clues go together with which puzzles. That’s both going to be your jam or it isn’t. However if you happen to’re like me — a veteran of ye olde point-and-click journey video games — then it’s doubtless going to have interaction your mind in a satisfying method.

Value a thousand phrases: What to love in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

The artwork design in LatLE is its most distinctive characteristic, with nearly all the things in black, white and shades of gray. The one colour that seeps by is shiny, pinkish pink neon gentle that’s often used to point one thing necessary or noteworthy. It’s putting, particularly the shades of pink begin to bleed into and overpower the monochrome world, making one query the truth round them. The longer the sport goes on and the extra you progress within the story, the redder and harsher it will get.

LatLE’s puzzles are by far its biggest energy. They’re tough, however not unattainable to unravel, and reward intelligent considering and cautious remark. You don’t need to be a genius, and the sport offers you a lot of the instruments you’ll want (together with an in-universe calculator constructed right into a handheld gaming gadget) to get the options. I gained’t say anything about them, as a result of even when I keep away from spoilers, I don’t wish to give any unintentional hints to unravel the puzzles once they might in any other case work them out your self. It’s an actual pleasure to do, and I wouldn’t wish to rob any participant of that.

Certainly one of LatLE’s strengths is the consistency of its puzzles and its early hints on tips on how to remedy them. That is one thing I seen all through my years of taking part in all the things from Nancy Drew video games to hidden-object adventures: Having constant puzzle mechanics is an unsung piece of recreation design. You shouldn’t be introducing new sorts of puzzles hours into the sport, particularly if you happen to haven’t ready your gamers for them. Certainly one of LatLE’s large set items is an enormous maze, and by the point the participant will get to it, they’re prepared because of the copious foreshadowing that screams, “You’re going to have to traverse a maze.”

Lorelei and the Laser Eye’s story is probably its largest shock. I used to be ready to put in writing that a part of the sport off, even when it was good. The puzzles have been my foremost focus, and an excellent story can be a nice bonus. However the recreation’s story isn’t simply good; it’s glorious. With out spoiling, it incorporates the puzzles and environment into the central narrative, dropping contradictory clues about what’s happening as actuality bends and twists, to the purpose the place the story itself appears like one large puzzle — the final word puzzle, even.

Sketchy on the small print: What to not like in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

In a recreation as functionally simple as LatLE, the easy mechanics are each a energy and a weak spot. Once they work — they usually do work, for essentially the most half — they supply a clean, pleasing recreation expertise. Nevertheless, any small flaws can really feel like enormous issues comparatively talking, and LatLE has one flaw in its design: The menus perform on a single button press. Granted, your entire recreation (bar the motion) features on a single button, however it’s principally within the menus the place this turns into a difficulty.

As I stated earlier than, LatLE saves and catalogs all data you discover, together with random symbols, e book pages or conversations, all neatly filed by class in your menu. Nevertheless, once you wish to navigate by the subreddit, there’s no “back” button. Since you’ve just one button to work with, you must navigate to the earlier menu by discovering the “back out” image on the submenu and tapping it together with your one button.

Contemplating how a lot time you’ll spend scrubbing by the clues in search of that one piece of information that’ll allow you to remedy that one puzzle you’ve been caught on, having to navigate to an in-menu again button, quite than having one tied organically to the mouse or controller, generally is a ache. It’s nearly like a backhanded praise to the sport’s puzzle design that irrespective of how caught I bought, I by no means bought pissed off with the puzzles, however the menus had me able to chuck my Change out of a window.

The one different foremost difficulty I had with the sport is that there’s a touch system teased that doesn’t exist. Personally, I wouldn’t thoughts if the sport had a perfunctory trace system. I don’t suppose it might have taken away something. However the recreation doesn’t have one — as a substitute it has a cellphone line the participant can name for “advice,” which is usually not recommendation however some obtuse phrase from an untrustworthy character. By incorporating a touch choice that doesn’t supply hints, it feels as if the devs are tricking gamers into feeling silly. It’s merciless, for all I don’t suppose it was intentional.

Do you have to play Lorelei and the Laser Eyes?

Any gamer who’s a fan of puzzle video games, mind teasers or journey video games will get pleasure from Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, particularly in the event that they’re not afraid to tug out a pocket book and get writing whereas taking part in. It’s a incredible story wrapped in a stable basis of gameplay, and what few drawbacks there are don’t take away from the expertise in any method that issues. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a recreation that’ll problem and reward you equally, and it’s top-of-the-line total experiences I’ve had in 2024 to this point.

(Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is presently obtainable on PC and Change. Annapurna Interactive offered GamesBeat with a assessment code for the needs of this assessment.)