Observe (Robin van der Horst)

A very atypical game that despite good puzzle had me often frustrated or dissatisfied. Before I complain about some elements, I do want to underline that the puzzles themselves are good. Some simple some tricky, a good balance, quantity, and complexity overall. I've also enjoyed the artstyle, even if it's nothing extremely visually outstanding. Just a shame that in the last world the floor wires get a bit tangled if not flat out incorrect. Now, most puzzle games become easier if you start drawing a path to the goal from the goal itself, rather than the starting position. This game requires you to do that by default, figuring out where you need who and then solving things back to front. But because your inputs are still in normal time, I found myself often repeating segments of a puzzle to put the final piece in place, and then go back to the start of the timeline to set up the next furthest piece. And if I messed up the order or timing along the way? Gotta set it up all from scratch, or the furthest up point I can manage to shuffle the changes/forgotten bits. I heavily enjoy the fact that saving your replay is part of the puzzle, but it also creates very frustrating scenarios in …

[b]8/10[/b] The illuminati is finally done with this life, but their 3rd eye keeps getting in the way. [b]What is it:[/b] You’ve figured it out! You’re finally able to see beyond the facade of this life. You’ve peeled back the curtains and what do you see? The people pulling the strings are just as confused as yourself - bumping into each other (or some version thereof) as they themselves try to leave the very stage they are manipulating. Observe was a weirdly good one. You play a hooded character that has the ability to manipulate into action whatever it is looking at. This boils down to moving lasers in a clockwise fashion until they trigger each level’s exit conditions - penetrating various crystal balls strategically laid throughout the level. Sounds simple? It's not. Keep reading. [b]How complicated can moving lasers around really be?[/b]Very. So much so that you actually have to work with past versions of yourself to illuminate all the crystal balls needed to exit the room. Add to this that the lasers can kill you and your “time-clones”. Some solutions require precise timing from one “you” so that you don’t accidentally kill (or as the game puts it “lose a memory”) any fu…

Played this game when it was still a demo, super excited to see it fully released! I've not beaten the game as of writing this review but I've gotten maybe 2/3rds through the 4th chapter and oh man the puzzles are so cool! the mechanics are so interesting and unique, and the puzzles are all the right level of challenging. Having to replay levels you already know the solution to because your timing wasn't quite right may be a tad annoying but it only really bugged me on this one section in the Hive where you have a really narrow window to hide behind a wall from a laser and I died like. 10 times. but hey it gave me an achievement so i say it's all worth it. anyway i finished that level and I've been doin alright since so yay. The story uses a lotta big words so my plan is to just like. beat all the levels and then once I've got all the dialogue unlocked I can just sit down and parse through it all at once lol

Absolute banger of a game, wishing more people knew of it. Works perfectly on the Steam Deck (with the right key mapping preset), looking forward to proper controller support!

Fantastic Puzzle Game. As a person who doesn't typically game at all, let alone play puzzle games, I have found it difficult to put this one down. The art, music, and storytelling contributes to a sense of immersion that reinforces the incredibly fun and unique gameplay. I've always been a fan of how simple rules and ideas lead to complex emergent behavior, and this game is a perfect example. The simple notion of being able to have your past actions affect yourself leads to detailed puzzles that require a lot of thought. The difficulty is just right for me and I thoroughly enjoy it. Props to the developers.

My mental health is completely healthy and I AM LIGHTNING MCQUEEN VROOOM! VROOOM! VROOOM! VROOOM! VROOOM! VROOOM... VROOOM... vrooom... vrom.