Good evening, dear reader, and welcome to the Orbyss review. The truth is that Orbyss seemed strange to me from the very first minute. Not necessarily bad, just strange. It throws you into a space that seems both alive and mechanical at the same time, gives you control of a small Orb, and expects you to figure out what's going on by yourself. It doesn't say much.
It doesn't explain anything. It just pushes you forward with a steady and fair increase in the pace of the puzzles.

If you like puzzle games that trust you, you'll probably appreciate it. If you prefer games that give you all the details on a plate, Orbyss may annoy you. But that's part of its charm, or its trap, depending on how you look at it. Let me explain.

The game puts you inside the Construct. The name sounds cold, like a design in a technical file. But the space is not dead. You see energy lines sparkling like nerves, platforms that look organic, and metal surfaces that vibrate slightly. And in the midst of all this, a red cloud passes by like an angry storm. This is the Beast.
It spins, leaving behind growths with eyes that stare at you. It's kind of creepy without even trying. The environment remains deliberately vague. No one tells you what the Construct is or why the Beast exists. You just make up your own theories. And often that's enough.

Controlling the Orb is simple at first. You twist it. You move the camera. You have an action button that activates mechanisms, grabs pegs, throws you out of alcoves. It sounds easy, and it is. At least at first.
The trap is that the game builds on these basic layers. In each puzzle, it throws something new at you. Another Orb. A drone mechanism. A sound you have to locate. And in the end, it asks for all of them together. You know that feeling when a game slowly becomes more demanding until you find yourself stressing over something that seemed funny and simple before? That's what Orbyss does.

At first, the puzzles don't ask for much. Move a little. Press a button. Don't fall off a platform. The suction chutes at the end of each puzzle suck you into the next one like tubes in an old machine.
These first moments serve a purpose: to train your hands. Rolling the Orb is easy, but manipulating it with precision along with the camera... takes a little time. And when it starts to come naturally, the game decides to make it harder for you.

Not all Orbs work the same way. Some you can control directly. Others can't lift you, so you drag them or point them in a direction to go there on their own.
In the more complex puzzles, you switch from Orb to Orb and have to work as if you were in a control room. Activate here, move there, change Orb, another switch somewhere else. It's like a little choreography that you have to synchronize. And that's where the game gets really interesting.

As soon as the drones appear, everything changes. The drone lifts the Orb and gives you freedom of movement over the entire puzzle. You fly over gaps, see things from above, and new paths open up. Force fields restrict you, but you can deactivate them.
The difficulty comes when you have to eject the Orb at a specific point. If you do it wrong, you can trap it. Fortunately, the game doesn't punish you. You just start again from the pedestal. This shows very clearly that the developers didn't want to punish you. They want you to experiment. To try. To fail without stress.

If regular drones give you freedom, programmable drones give you... a headache (in a good way). You control them once, the time bar empties, the drone disappears, and the next Orb repeats exactly the route you took. You use it to activate switches in the background while you do something else in the foreground.
Some puzzles require two or three drones to work simultaneously, with perfect timing. These are some of the best ideas in the game. And one of the most stressful at the same time. But when the drone presses the switch at the right moment and opens a platform for you, then everything comes together and you feel super smart.
Then the game brings in puzzles with sound. Not music. Not rhythmic gameplay. More like "find where the tone is coming from." Other times, the camera locks you in a ring and you have to search with the stick to find where the sound is coming from. Other times, you match tones or follow a sequence of chimes.
What if you can't hear well? There is a visual aid option. Icons appear above the puzzle elements, making the sound visual. The game describes it as 'easier', but in reality it's just fair.

You can ask for a hint from the pause menu if you find things difficult. Not immediately. The game waits a few minutes before letting you. It's as if it's saying, 'try a little more'. When you finally ask for it, it shows you a picture and a sequence of moves. And that's enough. The hint I got showed me exactly what I was missing. I felt a little stupid, but hey, I'm no Sherlock Holmes.

Orbyss lasts about five hours. Maybe six. Maybe four. The eight chapters stand out not because the environment changes, it doesn't change much, but because the mechanisms change. And you know what? It ends just when it should.

Plus, if you like achievement hunting (like me), you'll find plenty here. Some are easy. Some are more challenging. Some are ridiculously difficult.
There's very little story. The Construct seems alive. The Beast seems like an invader. The Orbs seem like they're cleaning up a contamination. That's one version. You may see something else. Maybe the Orb is the problem. Maybe the Beast is the defense mechanism. The game doesn't answer. And it doesn't need to.
But tell me, Karajohn, is Orbyss worth the €14.79 it costs? Look, if you like puzzle games that steadily increase in difficulty, yes. If you want systems that gradually become more demanding, yes. If you want a clear story or a logical explanation of the world, probably not. If balancing on narrow platforms with a 3D camera annoys you, it might tire you out.
But Orbyss strikes a nice balance. It respects the player. It lets you learn at your own pace. It challenges you without punishing you. And when it makes things difficult, it never does so unfairly.
You know what? It made me think more than I expected. It made me theorize. Want to understand the Construct. Enjoy puzzles that combine movement, sound, and timing in a way that flows beautifully. It's a short journey, but a good one. If you like puzzle games that take you seriously, Orbyss is definitely worth your time.

I would like to thank Gamelab for giving me the game.

Rating 8/10

🔸 EXPECTATIONS: a simple rolling-ball puzzle game.
🔸 REALITY: a minimalistic rolling-ball puzzle game.

🔷 Orbyss is a 3D puzzle platformer with no jumping, where the player controls an orb that can give commands to other balls, or switch command entirely with them in certain cases. It's all very minimalistic, from the range of actions to the visual design, music and specially narrative.

🔹 Being all that minimal can make one think it might be a shallow or dull game, but it's not the case. If puzzles is what matter, they're very well layered, adding new elements in each of the 8 chapters. Levels can be solved 'imperfectly', or in an optimal way, which unlocks in-game achievements.

🔹 Be aware that besides moving things around the level, Orbyss also includes different types of puzzles that involve sound, if that can be an issue. It can take around 8 hours to complete, and probably beyond the 10h including the bonus levels released after launch.

🔹 The visuals, while nice and appealing initially, let me down a bit by the end for its lack of variation and/or narrative development. The story, though, is told without text nor dialogue, completely relying on the action and the compelling music.

🔹 Regarding difficulty, I'd say it's easy to reach the end: the main challenge is to figure out the level rather than executing it, so it involves a bit of exploration and trial/error. The achievements, on the other hand, are harder, often involving some tricks one can do, but wouldn't normally do.

💠 Some games succeed by trying new things, others by perfecting an established formula, and Orbyss belongs to this second group. It's nothing new or revolutionary, but it scores high in most of its parts. If 3D puzzle platformers are your thing, Orbyss is very well recommended.

POSITIVES:
🙂+
😄+ music/sound fx
😍+
NEGATIVES:
🙁- repetitive environments
😠-
😡-

For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow Puzzle Lovers and check out our Steam group.