Lorelei and the Laser Eyes Review: A laptop puzzle game with a creepy vibe

I feel the advertising and marketing for Lorelei and Laser Eyes might have completed him a disservice. Whenever you first watch the trailer, you’re left with the impression of some recreation media with an undefined style and magnificence. They concentrate on the aesthetics of the avant-garde French New Wave movie and its vaguely eerie moods on the border between survival and horror. That is all properly and good—and it is all current and accounted for within the recreation—however Lorelei and the Laser Eyes Simogo is admittedly an old style, mind-bending puzzle recreation.

Lorelei’s story is advised with minimal exposition and no introduction—you play a mysterious girl who arrives on the Letztes Jahr Lodge with a letter in her pockets and a mission that even she does not appear to grasp. You, the participant, should assist this girl determine who she is and why she is right here, and what precisely the unusual residents of the lodge need from her. None of this data comes with out a lot effort – once I say “puzzles” I imply virtually actually, a puzzle.

The lodge itself is stuffed with puzzles in each room, each lock and protected, requiring you to resolve puzzles to entry rewards. The sport tracks your progress and catalogs each bit of knowledge you get in its menu (which is interpreted in-universe because the protagonist’s eidetic reminiscence). That approach, you possibly can entry any clues you may need discovered elsewhere within the lodge at any time. It has a little bit of a Metroidvania really feel to it, within the sense that you simply typically will not have the instruments to resolve every puzzle instantly, which means you may should backtrack as soon as you discover the precise clues.

Lorelei (or LatLE) is what I wish to name a puzzle pocket book, within the sense that it is best so that you can at all times have a pocket book useful to maintain monitor of clues. The sport does a superb job of retaining hints and data available, however most gamers will probably want their very own system to maintain monitor of which hints go together with which puzzles. It is both going to be your jam or it isn’t. However when you’re like me—a veteran of the outdated point-and-click journey video games—it is prone to interact your mind in a satisfying approach.

Value a thousand phrases: what to love about Laurel and the Laser Eyes.

The artwork design in LatLE is essentially the most distinctive characteristic, virtually the whole lot is in black, white and shades of grey. The one coloration that seeps by is a shiny pink-red neon gentle, often used to indicate one thing essential or noteworthy. It is unusual, particularly when shades of purple start to penetrate the monochrome world and overpower it, making you query the truth round them. The longer the sport goes on and the additional you progress within the story, the redder and extra violent it turns into.

LatLE’s puzzles are its best power. They’re tough however not not possible to resolve, and so they reward intelligent pondering and cautious remark. You do not have to be a genius, and the sport offers you a lot of the instruments you may want (together with an in-universe calculator constructed into your handheld gaming system) to get the options. I will not say something extra about them as a result of though I am avoiding spoilers, I do not need to give away any unintended clues to resolve the puzzles after they may in any other case clear up them on their very own. It is an actual pleasure and I would not need to take that away from any participant.

One in every of LatLE’s strengths is the consistency of its puzzles and the primary hints on the best way to clear up them. That is one thing I’ve seen through the years enjoying the whole lot from Nancy Drew video games to hidden object adventures: constant puzzle mechanics are an unsung a part of recreation design. You should not introduce new sorts of puzzles into the sport, particularly if you have not ready your gamers for them. One of many principal components of LatLE is a large maze, and by the point the participant reaches it, it is going to be prepared because of the wealthy foreshadowing that screams “You’ll have to undergo the maze”.

The story of Lorelai and the laser eye is maybe the largest shock. I used to be prepared to write down off this a part of the sport though it was good. The puzzles had been my principal focus, and a superb story would have been a pleasant bonus. However the recreation’s story is not simply good; that is nice. With out spoiling it, it weaves puzzles and environment into the central narrative, giving conflicting clues about what is going on on when actuality bends and twists, to the purpose that the story itself appears like one huge puzzle—even the largest puzzle.

Excerpt intimately: What’s to not like about Laurel and Laser Eyes

In a recreation as functionally easy as LatLE, easy mechanics are each a power and a weak point. After they work, so do they to do work, for essentially the most half — they supply a easy, fulfilling recreation. Nevertheless, any small flaws can appear to be comparatively big issues, and LatLE has one flaw in its design: the menu capabilities on the click on of a button. Granted, your entire recreation (no motion) is a single button operate, however it’s principally within the menus the place it turns into an issue.

As I stated earlier than, LatLE shops and catalogs all the knowledge you discover, together with random symbols, guide pages or conversations, all neatly categorized in your menu. Nevertheless, if you wish to navigate by the subreddit, there isn’t any again button. Because you solely have one button to work with, it’s important to go to the earlier menu by discovering the “again” image within the sub-menu and urgent it with one button.

Contemplating how a lot time you may spend on the lookout for clues that is one piece of knowledge this can show you how to resolve that one puzzle that you simply’re caught on, having to go to the again button within the menu as a substitute of getting a button organically tied to your mouse or controller could be a ache. It is virtually like a backhanded praise to the sport’s puzzle design: irrespective of how caught I acquired, I by no means acquired pissed off with the puzzles, however the menus made me need to throw my Swap out the window.

The one different main downside I had with the sport is that there’s a trace system that does not exist. Personally, I would not thoughts if the sport had a superficial trace system. I do not suppose it might take something away. However the recreation does not have one — as a substitute, there is a cellphone line the participant can name for “recommendation,” which frequently is not recommendation in any respect, however some dumb phrase from an untrustworthy character. By together with a touch choice that does not provide any hints, it feels just like the builders are tricking gamers into feeling silly. It is merciless, I do not suppose it was intentional.

Ought to I play Lorelei and Laser Eyes?

Any gamer who’s a fan of puzzle, puzzle and journey video games will get pleasure from Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, particularly if they don’t seem to be afraid to take out a pocket book and write whereas enjoying. It is a unbelievable story wrapped round a strong core of gameplay, and people few flaws do not detract from the expertise in any respect. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a recreation that may problem and reward you in equal measure, and it is top-of-the-line experiences I’ve had in 2024.

(Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is presently out there on PC and Swap. Annapurna Interactive offered GamesBeat with a evaluate code for the needs of this evaluate.)