Let me start by listing some of the absolutely best “10 out of 10” graphic puzzle adventure games I’ve played the past 40 years.
The Witness - wife and I beat this entire game without a hint. My proudest gaming achievement
Monkey Island 2: Lechuck’s Revenge - best of the earlier days in this genre
Myst IV - I am one of the few that consider Myst IV the peak of the series, but it really is. I remember beating and thinking, “Wow, my mind needs a break.” Most people pick Riven, but I liked the different environments and themes of the worlds of this game a lot.
I am definitely adding Lorelei and the Laser Eyes to that list. It’s that good.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is one of the absolute best graphic puzzle adventure games I’ve ever played and I’ve been playing them since King’s Quest 1-7 on my old DOS and Windows 3.1 computers.
Things I really liked:
Great vibe and overall mystery to its story and setting. I wanted to know what was up. No details here; go in blind. Every time I unlocked a new door, I was excited/intrigued.
Interconnected puzzles and information. I like compiling information together to reach solutions to puzzles. I would find information in one spot to apply to a puzzle elsewhere. Fun.
Puzzles are almost all of high quality. Some easy, some excruciatingly difficult, but all pretty fun to think about. Solutions were satisfying.
Required paper and pen(cil), something I haven’t seen in a long time. I began with a document and spreadsheet on my computer, but by the end was using pen and paper due to shapes, diagrams, etc. being needed.
Small points I didn’t like:
There is a maze in the game, but there is more to it than that. However, I don’t much like mazes or labyrinths, especially with obscured vision. I put a picture of the maze up on my computer screen in front of me while I navigated through. Personal preferences, though.
One puzzle requiring a combination of flipping and mirroring was frustrating, again due to my poor spatial intelligence. I made it, but was definitely feeling “whew. never again!” when it was done
After solving the “big final puzzle” the game had lead up to, it went on just a bit too long after, but a very small nitpick. I essentially thought I had beaten the game…and ended up having another half-hour or so that felt unnecessary.
Overall, a top notch game I would recommend to anyone who likes puzzles, mysteries, and the genre in general.
All critiques are incredibly minor. It’s a 9 or 10 out of 10 for sure.
I’m sure you’re aware of how you can beat a real-life maze pretty easily on the first go, right? If not – just keep a wall to your right at all times. Eventually you’ll reach the exit. Of course, this may not work in video-game mazes where there could be traps, false walls, etc.
One effective rule for traversing mazes is the Hand On Wall Rule, also known as either the left-hand rule or the right-hand rule. If the maze is simply connected, that is, all its walls are connected together or to the maze’s outer boundary, then by keeping one hand in contact with one wall of the maze the solver is guaranteed not to get lost and will reach a different exit if there is one; otherwise, the algorithm will return to the entrance having traversed every corridor next to that connected section of walls at least once. The algorithm is a depth-first in-order tree traversal. - SOURCE
I did not bother to draw it well, but starting at the O you can see following the wall will result in going in circles and you will never reach the exit.
Right, or you can put the start of the maze on the outside and the destination in the middle, or if you want start and finish to both be on the outside, then you can go three-dimensional and build a bridge from the middle to the edge. And of course, even in a real maze, it’s possible (though less common) to have traps, false walls, moving walls, etc.
the center is the goal, but you can’t access it without stopping at many spots around the maze
screen distortion, etc. happens to make it hard to see/navigate clearly.
I should really emphasize my problems with the mazes is very minor. Great game, great.
Took me 19.5 hours to beat, too. Pretty good length for a puzzle game like this.
I got one hint online due to my brain not working right and I did ask one clarifying question about a puzzle, just in terms of “am I supposed to even be solving this right now”.
I did have to read a proper synopsis/analysis of the story at the end to make sure I understood exactly what happened, but I found the story in-game to be great and I read every document I found in the game.
Bit of a dumb question. On Steam, can you download the game and have it live on your PC without needing any future connection to Steam? (I’ve only ever used Gog, where the answer to that question is Yes.)
When you get a game through Steam, you launch it through Steam. It’ll work for at least a while offline (though obviously you’ll miss out on things like multiplayer and cloud saving), but usually a game will eventually want to contact the servers (I think developers can set different timetables for this).
All that said, Steam is about the least obnoxious company you’ll find online. They have a near monopoly, but that’s because gamers and developers alike prefer to work with them, and they work hard to remove barriers to competition. I wouldn’t fear running Steam.
A game like this should work fine. You can tell Steam to go into offline mode and it will let you play your games like Lorelei with no internet.
I mean, I haven’t done that in a long time, but I played all of Fallout 3 through Steam offline. I was on vacation and this was before everyone had Wifi all the time.
If anyone else on the board plays this game, PLEASE share your thoughts and inquiries here. I had a blast and would love to hear from others navigating their way through this game.
I just bought this for the Switch today and played for about an hour, so not super far. I made it into the hotel, and explored pretty much everything that wasn’t immediately locked. Solved a couple of easy puzzles, mostly math based, re-assembled some posters, and read some book excerpts. It fun, very old school, with a cool noir design. I’m looking forward to continuing on.
Cool, keep sharing. It just kind of starts out slow and easy, but ups its difficulty nicely. I really enjoyed opening up more and more of the hotel and seeing what else I could find and see.
There is a mapping system! Very easy to find, hardly a spoiler at all. Find maps for all the floors of the hotel. I needed them just to track where I was, what I’d seen and hadn’t seen, and the easiest way to get around.
They aren’t that bad. I should point out that there is some level of randomization in puzzles in the game. Same puzzles, but numbers and so forth are shifted around or changed. I think, for example, your puzzles to open maps for each floor are the same as mine, but different maps probably have different puzzles.
I found all maps for all floors within a couple hours. So essential to navigation and marking off what you have done and need to do.