Phantom Path

Was really enjoying the atmosphere and the puzzles until I got to the part where turrets start one shotting you 10 minutes into a puzzle and you have to redo the whole level, most of which have lots of backtracking and running in circles where the solution is clear but the execution takes a lot of time running back and forth and waiting for gates to open. The hazards add absolutely nothing but irritation, if they were nerfed or removed I would pick the game back up in a heartbeat because everything else was great but as long as they're in the game I can't recommend it

A really enjoyable and clever puzzle game. It's not perfect, but the puzzles are very satisfying to solve, and it's longer than I expected for its price. I had a lot of fun playing it, which is why we play games in the end. There are a couple of bad things though. First of all, the puzzles can get very tedious, even when you have figured out the solution there will be a lot of running back and forth to do the necessary steps. A sprint button or something would help, maybe. And also there's the enemies. Most of the dangers you face are basically a way to slow you down, since they go away after a few seconds, but in the end you add that extra time to the already tedious way to solve the puzzles, and yeah it's detrimental to the experience, sadly. But if you're worried about enemies becoming a chore (I'm thinking of Aporia: Beyond the Valley), it's not that bad, some enemy types appear randomly and go away after a few seconds, other move along predetermined places in a very predictable pattern, and then there's the traps. Traps killed me a couple of times because the game surprises you with them. That was annoying because you have to start the whole puzzle from scratch... But those …

Wonderful puzzle game. Beautiful minimalist graphics and clever puzzles.

Enjoyable puzzles centred around moving coloured flames to unlock gates, teleporters and other mechanics that unlock during the game. Lovely art style with lore and secrets to find.

Takes a little while to warm up, with the first several stages feeling more like puzzles you'd hit in an rpg or something than things that belong in a real puzzle game, but gets pretty interesting eventually. The main mechanic is keys of various kinds that can be used in multiple places and are not consumed but held while they maintain whatever state they trigger. So you end up with sequencing based puzzles that are, on an abstract algorithmic level, very similar to tower of Hanoi. That might not sound great, but there's something satisfying about turning that crank, and the geometric or mazey aspect of it makes it much more compelling than a straight tower of Hanoi. It can get a little wearing running back and forth and this is aggravated by some of the traps and dangers, which are trivially easy to avoid, but sometimes require you to wait around for them to pass by. It's a nuisance and overall detrimental to the experience. I think the only reason they even exist is that in the lore the forest is supposed to be an extreme danger zone, so it would be weird if it were perfectly safe. Whatever. It's a small matter. Not the most challenging or ingenious puzzle game, but definitely …

Now this is a lovely little puzzle game. The puzzles themselves are respectable enough, but it's the surrounding world which really steals the show. It's far more dynamic than screenshots would have you expect: spruce trees and small plants sway lightly, birds fly overhead, critters wander about, and tiny particles drift lazily as the sounds of the forest surround you. There is a story told mainly through collectable scrolls and tomes, and it's decent enough, but this isn't something you play for the story or its payoff. It's something you throw five bucks at in return for several hours of comfy exploration through forests and ruins while fiddling with an ancient civilisation's magitech contraptions, and even if it isn't quite as flashy as some of it's contemporaries (its custom engine with a pretty good particle system aside), I'd say it's worth playing if this sounds like your thing. As for the enemies and turrets which a couple reviews complain about, don't worry about them. Rarely an phantom will spawn in, stand motionless, and either chase you a bit if you're close or despawn quickly if you wander away. They're barely a threat and more present for lore reasons than anything, …