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

I feel the advertising and marketing for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes may need accomplished it a little bit of a disservice. Whenever you watch the trailer for the primary time, you’re left with the impression of some sort of game-shaped media of unsure style and magnificence. 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 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 Lodge Letztes Jahr with a letter in her purse and a mission even she doesn’t appear to grasp. You, the participant, should assist this girl piece collectively who she is and why she’s right here, and what precisely it’s the lodge’s unusual denizens need along with her. None of this info comes with out effort — after I say, “piece collectively,” 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 so as to entry its rewards. The sport tracks your progress and catalogs each scrap of knowledge you obtain inside its menu (which is defined in-universe as the principle character’s eidetic reminiscence). So you’ll be able to entry any clues you will have discovered elsewhere within the lodge at a second’s discover. There’s a sort of Metroidvania really feel to it, within the sense that you simply typically gained’t have the instruments to unravel every puzzle instantly, that means you’ll should 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 monitor of the clues. The sport does a very good job of maintaining clues and knowledge accessible always, however most gamers will doubtless want their very own system for maintaining monitor of which clues go along with which puzzles. That’s both going to be your jam or it isn’t. However in the event you’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 manner.

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

The artwork design in LatLE is its most distinctive function, with virtually every part in black, white and shades of gray. The one coloration that seeps by is vibrant, pinkish pink neon gentle that’s often used to point one thing vital or noteworthy. It’s putting, particularly the shades of pink begin to bleed into and overpower the monochrome world, making one query the fact 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 best energy. They’re troublesome, however not unattainable to unravel, and reward intelligent considering and cautious remark. You don’t should be a genius, and the sport provides 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 the rest about them, as a result of even when I keep away from spoilers, I don’t need 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 need to rob any participant of that.

Certainly one of LatLE’s strengths is the consistency of its puzzles and its early hints on easy methods to clear up them. That is one thing I seen all through my years of enjoying every part 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 in the event you haven’t ready your gamers for them. Certainly one of LatLE’s massive 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 should traverse a maze.”

Lorelei and the Laser Eye’s story is maybe its greatest shock. I used to be ready to put in writing that a part of the sport off, even when it was good. The puzzles had been my primary focus, and a very good story could be a nice bonus. However the recreation’s story isn’t simply good; it’s glorious. With out spoiling, it incorporates the puzzles and ambiance into the central narrative, dropping contradictory clues about what’s happening as actuality bends and twists, to the purpose the place the story itself looks like one massive puzzle — the final word puzzle, even.

Sketchy on the main points: 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. After they work — and so they do work, for probably the most half — they supply a easy, fulfilling recreation expertise. Nevertheless, any small flaws can really feel like large issues comparatively talking, and LatLE has one flaw in its design: The menus perform on a single button press. Granted, your complete recreation (bar the motion) capabilities on a single button, but it surely’s principally within the menus the place this turns into a difficulty.

As I mentioned earlier than, LatLE saves and catalogs all info you discover, together with random symbols, e-book pages or conversations, all neatly filed by class in your menu. Nevertheless, if you need to navigate by the subreddit, there’s no “again” button. Since you may have just one button to work with, it’s a must to navigate to the earlier menu by discovering the “again 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 searching for that one piece of information that’ll assist you clear up that one puzzle you’ve been caught on, having to navigate to an in-menu again button, fairly than having one tied organically to the mouse or controller, could be a ache. It’s virtually like a backhanded praise to the sport’s puzzle design that irrespective of how caught I obtained, I by no means obtained pissed off with the puzzles, however the menus had me able to chuck my Change out of a window.

The one different primary subject 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 an alternative it has a cellphone line the participant can name for “recommendation,” which is usually not recommendation however some obtuse phrase from an untrustworthy character. By incorporating a touch possibility 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 take pleasure in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, particularly in the event that they’re not afraid to tug out a pocket book and get writing whereas enjoying. It’s a improbable story wrapped in a strong basis of gameplay, and what few drawbacks there are don’t take away from the expertise in any manner that issues. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a recreation that’ll problem and reward you equally, and it’s among the finest general experiences I’ve had in 2024 thus far.

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