There are two things that Lorelei and the Laser Eyes brings to the table what I think makes it a puzzle game worth anyone’s time. First, its stunning graphics are reminiscent of some of the most stylish games ever made, such as Killer7Secondly, puzzles draw the player in and force them to exert effort, both inside and outside the game, to solve them.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes‘ the story revolves around the Letztes Jahr Hotel. The protagonist arrives there after receiving an invitation, and that’s all the information he gets. From this incredibly vague beginning, you have to figure out why you’re here by solving contextual puzzles that allow you to explore more and more of the hotel, while the overarching story disturbingly seeps through the walls to fill in the gaps.
There was no spark between us Lorelei and the Laser Eyes from the very beginning. It took me a few hours to understand what was required of me, and then, after entering the intricate maze, I suddenly understood it. I say this because I don’t think this game is for everyone in the same way I would say Animal well is. It’s intentionally obtuse, requires a lot of input, and contains clues that can be completely missed for hours.
However, if you are looking for a puzzle game that will have you scribbling notes in your notebook, and the plot is snail-paced and doesn’t really make sense until the very end, then this is the game for you.
As you have probably noticed, most Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is puzzle-solving. In fact, your first action, opening the entrance gate, is a puzzle. You are always given a clue and directed to the information you need in red. That’s why the game’s graphics are so impressive, because everything else is monochromatic, giving you an almost supernatural ability to pick up clues where they appear.
I think it is this choice of style that makes it possible Lorelei and the Laser Eyes be a great puzzle box game. It would be too overwhelming if the environments were affluent in detail and color. But the monochromatic color scheme and peaceful, almost nonexistent soundtrack support you focus and find solutions. As someone for whom colors on a page can make a book unreadable, the visual style helped me understand the game. But I still had trouble at first.
Back to that front gate. Once you get the clue, you can’t just employ it to unlock the gate. Instead, this puzzle is riddle-based. You have to decipher the clue in the letter, employ it to unlock the door, then the panel, and then solve one final puzzle that will open the gate for you.
This was annoying when I was first getting used to the game. It’s like someone gave you a clue to one puzzle and then sent you off to solve another one until you forgot the first one and got lost. But that’s not the case. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is designed so that each story fragment and revelation creates a fresh sequence of puzzles within puzzles.
As you approach the hotel, you’ll feel like you’ve mastered these early puzzles and can get inside and explore. But that’s where the game really opens up, giving you a ton of information that won’t make sense until much later. If you pay attention, you can even see where some of the puzzles are going early on and have half a chance of solving two or three before you get stuck again.
Eventually, as I mentioned, things start to work. You realize that the game loads information at the beginning so that you can return to it later to solve the dozens of puzzles it throws at you. A collection of images and letters gives you the basic information you need for certain codes and paths, but you will often have to manipulate information to get the answers.
For example, these images may contain numbers that you must add or type in a specific order based on environmental clues. Letters and documents contain codes, but they are wrapped in further story or discoverable information, like a Russian nesting doll of clues.
Your notebook will be useful because it contains information that you need to refer to when looking at objects in some of the puzzles. Some of them had me looking for solutions in real-world information. It subtly plays on your real-world knowledge, and this is fantastic because it adds to the subtext of horror and cosmic horror that slowly builds as you open more doors and discover more of the truth.
This all sounds like a lot, and it may be, but Lorelei and the Laser Eyes has beautifully elementary controls and great systems that make solving sophisticated puzzles much more enjoyable. Your hero has a photographic memory, so you can refer to any document you’ve seen anywhere you need it. It’s elementary to explain and negates any unnecessary complications that other games might throw at you to fill your time.
Other than movement, all you can do is interact with objects or open menus. The menu allows you to access items you’ve picked up and that photographic memory. Otherwise, you’ll be interacting with keyboards, pictures, and everything else possible in the game. I can’t stress enough how elementary it is, and yet its simplicity still feels complicated because of the puzzles you’re solving and the information you’re referencing. All the gymnastics are in your head, though, because you have to hold numbers, sums, images, and the layout of the hotel in your mind to the point where it becomes mentally exhausting.
It’s very much like an ARG or one of those Exit board games. You have so much information to look through and piece together to create a puzzle, but Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is more streamlined due to its wonderfully elementary user interface, controls, and focus on the story, which you’re guided through by listening and watching rather than by a tutorial.
It may seem crazy, and it does seem crazy when you play. But, like I said, at some point you just click. You don’t see the letter and the red lines anymore. You see the beginning of the puzzle and the basis of the solution. You start to like them and you look for more information in each room. Then Lorelei and the Laser Eyes decides to change the genre a bit.
Without giving too much away about these changes, the game is filled with puzzles that are almost mini-games that change perspective, genre, and even tone. They feel fun and casual compared to the near-horror darkness of the hotel in the base game, and support keep the pace going when you might have had enough.
Flashing Lights Warning:If you are convinced Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, you should definitely play this game. I want to warn all potential players that at some point in the story, flashlights start taking over the screen. They aren’t regular, but they are persistent, and there is no way to turn them off in the settings. If this sounds like a problem for you, you might want to avoid this game.
The twisted maze I fell in love with Lorelei and the Laser Eyesis just one great example of such minigames. You have to get to the center, but in a puzzle game like this, it’s never that uncomplicated. Even when I gave up, the game threw me another puzzle related to my actions in the maze, and that’s when I really understood the dynamics of the game and my place in its world.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an intense puzzle box game that draws you in more and more the more mysteries you unravel. Yes, it can be frustrating, but the satisfaction you feel after completing each puzzle is greater because it demands so much more from you as a player. The story, which seems insignificant at first, quickly becomes an engaging and stylish mystery thriller that will keep you guessing until the end, sitting for another hour in hopes of seeing the next plot twist or substantial reveal.
