Game Thoughts: Lorelei and the Laser Eyes
A few months back I was hearing a lot of praise for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes; I finally grabbed it and finished it in a couple sittings.
The game's basically a long, artsy, self-aware escape room with some psychological/horror elements. It was pretty damn good!
In fact, it may be the best "virtual escape room"-type game I've ever played. While a few puzzles fell into the "way-too-obvious" or "I would have never figured this out without a guide" categories, the vast majority were in the sweet spot (for me). Even the optional book of puzzles to open shortcuts in the game (which amounts to 20ish pages of pure number / pattern puzzles) was super fun. The few horror elements were tense, but never over the top.
The overarching mystery of "what the fuck is going on" was also satisfying to slowly piece together -- while it felt a little too avantgarde at the beginning (which is on purpose and part of the theme) everything clicked together by the end of the game.
Unfortunately the game really sucks at UI. For some reason someone decided to make this a game where you just have directional input, the menu button, and a single action button. No back button. This seems fine on paper until you're manipulating hundreds of documents and interactive puzzles with no "back" button, quick-restart, or "jump to next page" controls. You will need to manually navigate to the close icon literally hundreds of times throughout a playthrough, which adds nothing to the experience but frustration.
That's the only stain on an otherwise great experience, however, and you do kind of get used to it after a few hours.
It's definitely a must play for escape room and puzzle game fans!