Recent reviews by Judy

Finished! If you like "Notebook Mystery" games, I think you'll enjoy this one. Shares some qualities with Outer Wilds, The Roottrees Are Dead, Blue Prince, the Golden Idol games... I thoroughly enjoyed this.

It's not a perfect game though. It was a bit buggy at launch, and still had some minor issues by the time I finished. Controller support on Steam Deck is sorta broken, you can't navigate any of the UIs with the directional pad, just the left joystick. There are also long load times between map areas, not great if you move around a lot. I ended up trying to prioritize finding clues and solving mysteries closest to where I was, so I wouldn't have to endure so many map loads. Finally, I feel like the in-game puzzles were just a *little* too easy for me. The mind-map feature (while very similar to Outer Wilds and works perfectly here!) makes connections for you, between the puzzle you're looking at and the related other clues you've found. It practically hands you the solution and that's not satisfying.

That said. If you're like me and want more notebook mystery games, this absolutely works. Great visual design, memorable story, decent voice acting... there's still a lot working here that makes this an easy recommendation from me.

I liked it! It's a neat side-scroller-slash-adventure game. The puzzles are designed well, and I was never stuck for long. I also enjoyed

- Some of the backtracking is a little bit tedious. If I realize that I forgot something, I may have to backtrack through a couple different screens, while sitting through the animations as my robot climbs a ladder or takes an elevator.
- It can be painfully hard to see the little icons that let me know there's something I can interact with. This is a solved problem for some new adventure games, but this game makes it even harder by forcing you to use a flashlight and aim it in the direction of a notable object. This kept happening, and only detracted from the game play.

But the plot is pretty good, and I had a hard time backing away from the computer once it started. If you like adventure games, pick this one up.

Phenomenal. Some games are experiences you'll never forget, and this is one of those. But let's go with the weakest part, and go from there.

The puzzles are a bit too simplistic, and as a platformer it's very linear. There's no open world exploration here. But you forget all about that, because of how strong the rest of the game is.

Gameplay: A+. You're controlling two brothers simultaneously with both thumbsticks (and both trigger buttons for actions), a mechanic I've never seen used before, and it feels wonderful. Intuitive, actually, which is doubly impressive for a brand new mechanic. The pacing is equally as impressive; there's never a dull moment in the entire game.

Visuals: A++. This game is *gorgeous*. It starts looking good. Each level you go through gets progressively more epic-looking, to the point where you're getting warm fuzzies every time you turn a corner.

Story: A+++. This game will make you cry. And it does it without a moment of actual voice acting. I can't say anything else for fear of spoiling it. But this is a game you'll want to share with people, and you can't, because it hasn't gotten the attention it's deserved. (I'm writing my first review on Steam, just to convince friends to play it!)

I cannot recommend this game enough.