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

I feel the advertising and marketing for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes may need executed it a little bit of a disservice. If you watch the trailer for the primary time, you’re left with the impression of some type 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 nicely 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 informed 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 primary character’s eidetic reminiscence). So you’ll be able to entry any clues you could have discovered elsewhere within the lodge at a second’s discover. There’s a type 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 must 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 finest so that you can have a pocket book readily available always to maintain monitor of the clues. The sport does a great job of maintaining clues and knowledge out there always, however most gamers will seemingly want their very own system for maintaining monitor of which clues go together with which puzzles. That’s both going to be your jam or it isn’t. However when you’re like me — a veteran of ye olde point-and-click journey video games — then it’s seemingly going to interact 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 means of is vibrant, pinkish purple neon gentle that’s often used to point one thing necessary or noteworthy. It’s putting, particularly the shades of purple 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 power. They’re tough, however not unattainable to unravel, and reward intelligent considering and cautious commentary. You don’t must 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.

One among 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 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 when you haven’t ready your gamers for them. One among LatLE’s massive set items is an enormous 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 must traverse a maze.”

Lorelei and the Laser Eye’s story is maybe 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 primary focus, and a great story could be a nice bonus. However the recreation’s story isn’t simply good; it’s wonderful. With out spoiling, it incorporates the puzzles and environment into the central narrative, dropping contradictory clues about what’s occurring as actuality bends and twists, to the purpose the place the story itself appears like one massive puzzle — the last word puzzle, even.

Sketchy on the small print: 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 point. After they work — they usually do work, for probably the most half — they supply a easy, gratifying recreation expertise. Nonetheless, any small flaws can really feel like enormous issues comparatively talking, and LatLE has one flaw in its design: The menus operate 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. Nonetheless, once you wish to navigate by means of the subreddit, there’s no “again” button. Since you could 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 means of the clues searching for that one piece of information that’ll assist you resolve that one puzzle you’ve been caught on, having to navigate to an in-menu again button, somewhat 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 acquired, I by no means acquired pissed off with the puzzles, however the menus had me able to chuck my Change out of a window.

The one different primary situation 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 choice 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 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 drag out a pocket book and get writing whereas enjoying. It’s a incredible story wrapped in a strong 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 probably the greatest general experiences I’ve had in 2024 to date.

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