Games I Played In 2024 - Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

 

Console: Switch, Steam

Developer: Simogo

Release Date: May 16th 2024

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a puzzle game with strong point-and-click and text adventure leanings that focuses on logic puzzles, a twisted narrative, and art. Developed by stand-out mobile game developer Simogo, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is their first console/PC exclusive. Simogo are most known in the console and PC space for Sayonara Wild Hearts, but it feels like Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is poised to be their first big hit, relatively speaking. It's worth noting that, all things considered, Simogo are essentially a two developer team, and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes was created in 4 years, according to the credits. It's hard to go in detail in this review, as a lot of the game's intricacies lie in its narrative, which I don't want to spoil, and I obviously can't detail all the puzzles.

Immediately apparent in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is the game's rather unique presentation. Fully monochrome except for the color red and boasting some rather low-poly but nonetheless lovely environments, Lorelei's visual identity is very strongly defined from the get go. There are no intro cinematics to set the mood, nor is there a tutorial. Instead, the player is placed in the shoes of an unnamed woman who just arrived at a hotel in the middle of the woods, invited there by an artist. In lieu of a tutorial, the player can find the game's own instruction booklet within the first minute.

Minimalistic like its color scheme, Lorelei opts for simple object animations and black screens with simple text to depict most actions taken by the protagonist. Namely, when the player has a choice to make upon interacting with something, a black screen with text shows up, bringing to mind a text adventure game, in a way. Before long, the player accumulates notes, maps, documents and finds patterns. 

In the aforementioned instruction booklet, the player is encouraged to use a pen and paper to take notes, and I'd go as far as to say that it's borderline necessary to enjoy the game. A lot of the difficulty is in unraveling all the different information you gather to solve puzzles, and there are many symbols and images that just can't be noted in a text document as easily. Lorelei is the kind of game that makes you seem like a lunatic, writing notes, and it's all the better for it. By the end of my 100% playthrough, I had around 8 pages of scribbled notes. It's one of those things that enhances the experience, in my opinion, and I wish more of these puzzle games would require this. 

The main character has photographic memory, and this is used to keep a record of everything important found for later reference, if needed. She also takes notes of what needs to be solved, which can be helpful if ever stuck, and a personal history of what happened in the playthrough at what time. While items can't be investigated in 3D, they do have fairly lengthy descriptions that can be helpful for some puzzles. Either way, it's great flavor text that adds to the immersion.

Clearly inspired by survival horror greats Resident Evil and Silent Hill, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes employs a fixed camera perspective where the camera is placed in different positions to show off the entire room or a section of a room as you get closer to a point of interest. This is never a disorienting experience, and rarely feels like a surprise due to clear screen changing indicators between rooms and never really changing the main character's position in an illogical way. Should I end up playing other fixed camera games, I'll be unable to refrain from comparing their camera system to Lorelei's due to how natural it feels.

The horror game inspirations are mostly reflected in presentation and general mood, though. The game, understandably, entirely lacks combat and while there are enemies, there are a finite amount of them and they are to be engaged, not avoided. This is because they hold key parts of the narrative, should you solve the puzzle they pose at gunpoint once you engage them. These add a little bit of tension, but the puzzles given feel a little too easy for the most part to really be anything truly stressful. They will likely startle most players, though, as they appear with little to no warning with some somewhat loud sounds.  

While the game is teeming with puzzles, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is very much a game with a focus on its narrative. I won't go into details here, since the game's main appeal is unraveling its non-linear, enigmatic story, but I will say that the writing in general is quite excellent. The artist who invited the main character to the hotel, especially, truly does come across like an eccentric, unpredictable artist with an unreadable tone. It's a testament to the writing's quality, since the game has no voice acting. The writing on the documents is genuinely well-written as well, and it enhances the entrancing qualities the game presents.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes' narrative is, first and foremost in my opinion, about art. While some characters take their dedication to art in strange ways or exhibit it to an extreme, I did find myself resonating with the general reverence of art that permeates the entire game. As I've grown older, especially in the last few years, I've found myself becoming more artfully minded, and generally appreciating art, especially in video games, far more than I used to even if I have trouble wording it properly sometimes. Needless to say, though, the game's characters are quite... eccentric, all being artists, and I'd say it's for the better.

Naturally, being a puzzle game mostly centered around logic puzzles, a lot of Lorelei's difficulty will be subjective. Some will find the puzzles easy to figure out, others will find them extremely difficult (especially those not taking notes with pen and paper), and many others will have a varied experience. In general, the puzzles rely on pattern recognition, thinking outside the box, and mathematics. Usually, if a puzzle seems too difficult, it means you haven't found the right information to solve it yet. It only gets truly difficult and a bit opaque when a puzzle requires you to remember that something was used previously or to make those connections. There are also points where a puzzle is found long after its solution was found, or vice-versa, which can make it very confusing to the player.

Helpfully, the game has a clear point of no return, and it makes it clear that you don't need to 100% the game to pass it. However, it is locked behind a three-part puzzle that I would argue is the hardest in the entire game, and not necessarily in a good way. While it's a great way to lock away the endgame to make sure the player understands what is going on before diving in, it's also quite frustrating due to being unable to open your notes while inputting all three steps, and the lack of transparency as to which part you messed up on, should you fail it. Inputting each part is rather tedious due to the complexity of each task, and since you're only told if you failed or not after all three parts, you need to do it all over again for another attempt. I unfortunately required a guide for one of the parts, as it was completely inscrutable to me.

A mild annoyance is the game's control scheme. Here, Simogo's mobile origins are very visible: the entire game is only controlled with directions and a single button. As a result, there is only a confirm button and no back button. To get around this, each menu is instead designed with an X option that serves as a back button. This was very confusing for most of my early playtime, and stayed a consistent annoyance the rest of the way. With the lack of wrap-around scrolling, it can make menu navigation surprisingly tedious when poring over information.

There are some mechanics that are superfluous, seemingly by design. The temperature and stress meters displayed on the menu serve no purpose, while the caffeine and bladder systems are entirely optional. Quite simply, when unlocked, the main character can drink coffee to run instead of walk, at the cost of needing to go to the bathroom after a bit. I never felt the need to use this mechanic, as I found the main character's walk speed appropriate for the entirety of the game. 

Also, though I'm unaffected by it, I also want to point out that despite the large importance of the color red throughout the entire game, both as a narrative tool and a guiding tool, there are no colorblindness accessibility options.

Finally, the soundtrack for Lorelei and the Laser Eyes was composed and performed by Jonathan Eng, Daniel Olsén, and Linnea Olsson, especially the latter two. Jazzy, ambient, spooky and beautiful, the music perfectly fits the game's setting. Furthering this is the fact that music is typically diegetic: throughout the hotel there are phonographs that, when activated, play unique songs that can be heard from surrounding rooms at various volumes. Once again, it lends the game a shocking amount of immersion.

The soundtrack is comprised mostly of somber, yet classy-sounding cello and piano parts, sometimes with hummed vocalisations and spooky synths. As far as I can tell, Linnea Olsson not only lends her beautiful voice to the soundtrack, but also her lovely cello playing, while Jonathan Eng is only credited for tracks that have guitar and drums. The tracks Eng is credited on stand out on the soundtrack, and are some of the most memorable. Linnea Olsson also sings the two lyrical tracks in the game: "Laser Eyes" and "Radio Waves". Radio Waves is perhaps my favorite track in the game, and plays during the credits.

PROS AND CONS

PROS

• Excellent puzzles overall, even if some may be a bit too easy or vague for some.

• Unique graphical style that give the game its own visual identity.

• Very good writing, especially for the character dialogue.

• Interesting narrative that is really fun to try and make sense of while still being open for interpretation.

• Strong sense of immersion.

• Great use of a diegetic soundtrack to enhance the immersion factor.

• Needing to take physical notes is a welcome wrinkle in the modern landscape of puzzle games.

CONS

• The puzzle to enter the endgame is too tedious to enter, lacks direction when failing it, and is potentially a bit too difficult compared to the rest of the game, even if the difficulty makes narrative sense.

• Some puzzles are encountered too long after their solution is found or vice-versa, potentially resulting in confusion.

• No colorblindness options.

• Irritating menuing due to the lack of a back button.

• Some superfluous mechanics that don't seem too fun to play around with.

 WORTH PLAYING?

If you're a fan of puzzle games, especially logic puzzles like you'd find in a book, I can't recommend Lorelei and the Laser Eyes enough. It simultaneously feels like a tribute to old horror and adventure games, while also being its own thing. To be frank, logic puzzles like the majority of the ones presented in this game are hardly my favorites, but I still found myself sucked in by the narrative. The difficulty was, for the most part, just right as far as I'm concerned despite a few hiccups here and there. Make no mistake though: for as puzzle-oriented as this game can come across, it is still a narrative experience at its core and requires paying attention to what is going on.

Following this, I hope Simogo keep making more console/PC games first and foremost. I think that even though they are such a small studio, they definitely have the talent to keep going in this direction, no matter the genre. While some will call this one of the greatest puzzle games of all time, like I have already seen, I think that, for me, this is just another excellent indie puzzle game to add to the list. It did not resonate in terms of design or story with me as much as I would've wanted, even though I strongly enjoyed it and very much think it one of the best indie games of the year so far. 

But that hardly matters, does it? Because art resonates differently for different individuals. That's the beauty of it all.