The Guides

This is the most fascinating game I’ve played in a while. The simplest arrangement of dots on a screen can be infuriating, even as the last arrangement of dots was so simple... The clues are oblique. The puzzles build on each other and get increasingly complex as you go through the sequence. A clue or key may be hidden in another puzzle — or it might just look that way. You have to be able to think forwards, backwards, round about, and inside out (list not inclusive). Have scratch paper handy. Take notes as you go through. Mark which puzzles took which skills to solve. I have only finished the first chapter so far, so I can’t say anything about the ending except that I’m very much looking forward to it. :)

I’ve just finished the first section of the game, so I can’t say anything about where the story is going just yet, or if it even has a coherent story. What is great is the puzzles, which are varied and interesting, if very short. Thankfully there’s a lot of them. The only things keeping this game from a 5 star rating are the simplicity of some of the puzzles, the very short nature of the puzzles (while some referenced others, none of them required many steps to solve, so as soon as you figured out the pattern, it was time to move on to the next one) and the lack of any instructions. Ordinarily, that last critique would be a more serious flaw, but since it adds something to the mystery of this game, I’m not going to count it too harshly. The game is a good way to spend some downtime and keep you busy for a while in an entertaining, family friendly way. Even if you don’t get a puzzle right away, it’ll keep your mind working while you’re doing other things and waiting for the eureka moment.

If you like puzzles that give you very minimal information but all the tools are there to solve them, this is the perfect exemplification of that. I loved most of the puzzles; some I feel could have been better communicated or required more leaps in logic than necessary, in my opinion, but I never got frustrated. Pen and paper helps for some puzzles. The lore seems interesting, and paying attention to it probably helps with kind of getting the feel of certain puzzles. Overall, this was definitely one of my favorite puzzle games.

Sometimes, it’s too complex for casual attention to be paid, but that’s why it’s good. It’s frustrating, but in a good way. It’s all about a little extra thought. Then, it isn’t really hard, but clever and you will feel clever too. I’ve restarted my game (could not do so without un- and reinstalling?) because I put it away for a while and am liking it even more now that I can attack it again with a little experience under my belt. Visually artistic and very pleasing. I suggest not trying to understand the background story premise right away, but I believe it can be done if you read the companion app ‘Compendium’. Feels a little like Taltos that way in that it’s a fragmented science-tech diary of some sort. Nicccccce.

Unlike any game I’ve played before. Puzzles are challenging, but cleverly simple. An intriguing story line adds a lot of character interest to the experience. I’ve only finished one part so far, and read a bit of the compendium app, which is definitely worth the extra buck for the added story details, if not needed to solve puzzles. Really loving the experience. Find myself thinking over puzzles when my mind is otherwise at rest or occupied with mundane stuff. GREAT work dev team! Thanks for this!