9/10

A game that looks like a strategy card battler, but is actually an escape room full of secrets and cryptic puzzles.

What is it: While trying to make the perfect card game, you are trapped by the very game you were making. Surrounded by enemies, you can only move and attack by using the few game cards in your possession. But this is not a strategy or fighting game, most of the time it feels impossible to win, with literally invincible enemies in some of the levels. The focus is on figuring out which part of which level to tackle next, trying to collect one more card, which will then give you more power to approach the next part, and so on. Other than cards, there are also memories to find, like an old TV, a newspaper, a compass, or a music box. Each of these items comes with a short text, but more importantly, may hold a clue that will help you figure out a secret. Can you defeat all the enemies, collect all the memories, and escape the game?

https://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3735076804

This was lovely. I really enjoyed slowly unraveling the mysteries, even though I started to feel desperate for a hint near the end. I’m glad the developer didn’t give in to the pressure and let me figure it out by myself! Everything is really well designed, both the base “strategy” portions with one battle after another turning from impossible to solvable with each new card I unlocked, and the riddles hidden in the mementos that get increasingly more challenging.

https://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3735077430

How hard is it: Moderate, ★★★☆☆.

How long is it: Saying that it only has about 10 levels would be very misleading, since the whole game is like one big thing with little interconnected pockets, with multiple objectives in every room, and hard, cryptic riddles that may take minutes or hours to solve. My first play took almost 8 hours, but a quick second run took just half an hour.

https://v1.steam.hlxgame.cc/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3735078398

Puzzle design: Excellent.

Quality: Very good for a small first game. Excellent puzzles. No undo, though I rarely felt the need for it. The controls are not the best, switching from keyboard only to mouse only, then back to keyboard only as you recover your abilities, and using the mouse to click small buttons while in a hurry led to some fatal mistakes in the absence of Undo, but the mouse-only controls make sense story-wise. A few settings. Good progress achievements. Progress reset, though not multiple save profiles. Fast, small and responsive.

Worth the price: Yes.

Most positive aspect for me: Lateral thinking puzzles.

Most negative aspect for me: Mouse only controls.


What would make it better: Undo. Better controls, especially support for controllers. Multiple save profiles. And more puzzles!

Also consider:

Social Caterpillar and A Directionless Cycle, other games full of secrets.

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