Louis Guerrazzi

First time leaving a review - this game is the most fun I've had in ages. The beauty of this game is that it can be played a number of different way - do you want to meticulously look at every room and put together a cork board with red strings connecting theories? Yes! Do you want to build up your character's resources/build your "deck" of rooms out and essentially "brute force" your way through the game? Yes!. There are small puzzles in practically every room. Multiple "large" puzzles which span the entire game. The beauty is the developer creates sufficient opportunities for the game to give you the clues/hints/guidance, though those are subject to some RNG. What is unfortunate is that puzzle gamers are going to be frustrated by the rogue-like/rng/multiple run vibe of the game, and rogue-like aficionados may get turned off by the puzzles that seemingly roadblock a run/are obtuse. While some find this a negative, I think this genre-bending aspect is the most captivating part of the game, especially since it is done so well. Nothing in this game is spelled out for the player, though there are ample guardrails to eventually get the players there. And there isn't a lot, if any, fluff in the game. Everything seemingly has a purpose, even if you go through the Drawing room a million times and don't see the meaning. The only criticism I would give is that it would be fantastic to have some in-game UI to help document the different clues/hints/puzzles you have to deal with. To fully get into the game, you'll need a notebook/screen shots to remember all the varying and detailed elements of the game. This eliminates some of the emersion which the game otherwise delivers fully. It's a beautiful atmospheric mystery adventure which beautifully merges puzzle, rogue-like, and board game elements to tell a beautiful and eerie story. I don't know how close I am to finishing the game, but I can only hope that by the time I do, there is some additional expansion or DLC or sequel on the way to further explore this incredible world.