Annapurna Interactive
If you ’ve been following indie publisher Annapurna Interactive over the last two years , you might be intimate withLorelei and the Laser Eyes . The new project fromSayonara Wild Heartsdeveloper Simogo has gotten a spotlight at a handful oflive - stream showcase since 2022 , with trailers tantalize its eery whole step and puzzling world . While we ’ve known those details for a while , there ’s still one burning dubiousness that remains : What the hell is it ?
After a long postponement , I ultimately have the answer to that doubt . Annapurna Interactive lift the eyelid on the mysterious biz , giving me unrestricted approach to a full PC build of it . Though I ’m still realize my fashion through its mystifier - fill obsessed hotel , I ’ve played enough to get a good gumption of what Simogo is delivering . I ’ve also act enough to say , with confidence , thatLorelei and the Laser Eyesmight just be one of 2024 ’s boldest and best game .
Annapurna Interactive
Puzzle-box horror
ThoughLorelei and the Laser Eyesseems totally alien when first glancing at its striking bootleg - and - blank art style , it ’s really fairly soft to excuse . It ’s essentially a 1990s repugnance game with all the combat polish off . My journeying set out when I arrive at a creepy hotel where I ’ll be helping an eccentric Italian auteur film his former avant - garde chef-d’oeuvre . There ’s a lot of storey there , doled out through disperse committal to writing and casual cutscene breaks , but the bulk of my clock time is pass work the hotel .
It works a lot like the originalResident EvilorAlone in the Dark . When I depart , I ’m in a hotel full of locked doorway . Some have padlocks requiring turn codes . Others need Florida key . I start with nothing except a letter that gives me a sense of what class I ’m in and some tampon . I ’m present barren sovereignty to explore the open parts of the hotel in any agency I ’d care , lead mental note of locked door and peck up objects along the way . fix television camera angles track my effort from way to room , just like inResident Evil .
At first , the teaser I meet seem simple enough . To unlock shortcut doors , for instance , I get a puzzle book filled with 20 identification number riddles . Each one has a two - digit answer that I can dial into a lock on a door equate the puzzle ’s numeral . Some of those require me to solve math or watchword problems , while some more counter single hide misleadingly simple solution behind introductory reading comprehension . Some puzzles will make you experience like a genius when you solve them ; others will make you palpate like a moron for taking so long to figure them out .
The hotel is loaded with tactile teaser that have me entering numbers or a passcode of some sorting onto an object . commonly , those answers are found on some form of document I need to regain that ’s either hint at in the surroundings or shut away behind some sort of cipher I need to crack up . Early on , I notice one type of locked door that appear near pic post horse for the managing director ’s films . I have no approximation what the resolution could possibly be until I find some television cassette box for those films , each one include a abstract , the year it was released , its runtime , and more . I solve one straightforward puzzle using that data , but that ’s only half the fight . Other door have more complex clue , as movie posters appear chopped up or upside down . It ’s up to me to fancy out the ultimate logical system of each puzzle and crack the codes accordingly .
What ’s grueling to evince is just how astonishingly complex those mount challenge become . The more I pick up about the world ’s puzzle spoken language , the more I ’m able to solve things that seemed entirely impossible initially . ahead of time on , I ascertain a room full of wooden puzzle boxes that seemingly ca n’t be opened unless I press four buttons in the ripe club . I have no cue what that entail at first . I snap it hours later in a consequence of pure galaxy brain where I by nature piece together the most obtuse system of logic potential without any hints .
Not for the casual puzzle fan
lease me be clear : This is n’t a game for casual puzzle players . Simogo fully admit that it does n’t have a bun in the oven a great deal of instrumentalist to finish it . It ’s a mellow - level challenge that command solitaire , intense critical thinking , and some serious note - taking ( all documents are stored in a menu , but a notebook computer is truly need ) . It ’s rationalize from the same cloth asgenre greatslikeThe WitnessorReturn of the Obra Dinn . answer that seem impossible will make sense finally so long as you trust Simogo ’s sharp design and your own power to obsessively trail patterns like Jim Carrey ’s character inThe Number 23 .
If the mystifier do n’t thieve you , the art direction will . Every 2d ofLorelei and the Laser Eyesis visually arresting so far . Occasional splashes of red occasionally cut through the gamey - dividing line world . Ominous imagery linger in every way , from shattered mirror to double snarl motifs . An atmospherical soundtrack hang over it all , now and then giving way to a rare jump panic attack . It ’s as mesmerizing as it is unsettling — and there are so many visual surprise that I defy not cosset .
Even test to keep my verbal description as general as possible , it already feels like I ’ve said too much . The best way to playLorelei and the Laser Eyesis to go in with almost no anterior cognition . Do n’t watch out a banner play it , look up lore explainers , or bank on a guidebook to get through it . The at time antagonistic mystery is the point here , just like punishing fighting is forDark Souls . I still have a lot more to see judging by the biz ’s completion rate . I may never lick it all , but I ca n’t retrieve the last metre I was this whole engrossed in a game . I reckon down the minute to the end of every working day so I can get back to it . I have a notebook computer full of scribbles that I study when I ’m not play . I fall gone every dark thinking about it .
This is the sort of game that will take over your life . Do n’t start it until you ’re quick to fall down the rabbit hole .
Lorelei and the Laser Eyeslaunches on May 16 for Nintendo Switch and PC .
