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

I feel the advertising for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes might 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 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 instructed 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 data comes with out effort — after 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 secure requiring you to resolve 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 primary character’s eidetic reminiscence). So you possibly can entry any clues you will 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 simply usually received’t have the instruments to resolve every puzzle instantly, that means you’ll should backtrack as soon as you discover the related clues.

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

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

The artwork design in LatLE is its most distinctive function, with nearly all the pieces in black, white and shades of gray. The one colour that seeps via is vivid, pinkish pink neon gentle that’s normally used to point one thing necessary or noteworthy. It’s hanging, 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 biggest power. They’re tough, however not inconceivable to resolve, and reward intelligent considering and cautious commentary. You don’t should be a genius, and the sport offers you many of the instruments you’ll want (together with an in-universe calculator constructed right into a handheld gaming machine) to get the options. I received’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 resolve the puzzles once they may 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.

Considered one of LatLE’s strengths is the consistency of its puzzles and its early hints on methods to resolve them. That is one thing I observed all through my years of enjoying all the pieces 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 case you haven’t ready your gamers for them. Considered one of LatLE’s massive set items is a large maze, and by the point the participant will get to it, they’re prepared due to the copious foreshadowing that screams, “You’re going to have to traverse a maze.”

Lorelei and the Laser Eye’s story is probably its greatest shock. I used to be ready to jot down that a part of the sport off, even when it was good. The puzzles have been my important focus, and a great story could be a pleasing bonus. However the recreation’s story isn’t simply good; it’s wonderful. 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 seems 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 easy as LatLE, the easy mechanics are each a power and a weak spot. Once they work — and so they do work, for probably the most half — they supply a clean, satisfying recreation expertise. Nonetheless, 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, the whole recreation (bar the motion) capabilities on a single button, but it surely’s principally within the menus the place this turns into a problem.

As I mentioned earlier than, LatLE saves and catalogs all data you discover, together with random symbols, ebook pages or conversations, all neatly filed by class in your menu. Nonetheless, while you wish to navigate via the subreddit, there’s no “back” button. Since you may have just one button to work with, it’s important to 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 via the clues searching for that one piece of information that’ll aid you resolve 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, is usually a ache. It’s nearly like a backhanded praise to the sport’s puzzle design that regardless of how caught I acquired, I by no means acquired pissed off with the puzzles, however the menus had me able to chuck my Swap out of a window.

The one different important 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 assume 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 “advice,” which is usually not recommendation however some obtuse phrase from an untrustworthy character. By incorporating a touch possibility that doesn’t provide hints, it feels as if the devs are tricking gamers into feeling silly. It’s merciless, for all I don’t assume 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 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 the most effective total experiences I’ve had in 2024 up to now.

(Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is at the moment out there on PC and Swap. Annapurna Interactive supplied GamesBeat with a assessment code for the needs of this assessment.)