Greetings gamers, Greg here from Gaming Cypher to decode Lorelei and the Laser Eyes for you in review form. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a puzzle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in a hundred more puzzles. From developer Simogo and published by Annapurna Interactive, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, is a mystery that may seem like other games published by Annapurna like Twelve Minutes, What remains of Edith Finch, and Mundaun it’s because I think they seek out games and concepts that utilize style and intrigue on a budget.
What may stand out first to someone browsing the game store about Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is its black and white overall look with shades of red used for accent and its used so well it may be done for partially budget reasons but this gives the game such a instant feeling of a Noir mystery it draws people in.
Players enter this world as Lorelei and after having car trouble have to find their way to some form of sanctuary. Players can find a sign near their car that gives a sort of manual for the game this and the journey to the hotel is all the preparation players will receive on their way into the maze of a hotel. My favorite character makes an appearance at the hotels gate a friendly dog.
The hotel is filled with layered puzzles that don’t need to be solved in a liner fashion some will take time and others can be figured out fairly easily. I will happily warn you now this is not a puzzle game for the faint of heart, this will be a challenge, if this is your first puzzle game of its sort it might be a challenge that bests you and will fall by the way side. There is no shortage of puzzles though there are easily over a hundred puzzles throughout the game and despite having a photographic memory function taking notes will be necessary. So going into this game it is recommended you use a tablet or the old school form a binder for notes. Some of the puzzles can be solved in your head or visually decrypted by finding patterns which i think will come more naturally to most gamers. Decoding a GAMING CYPHER, sorry not us but a cypher within the game is much easier with a note device. I sometimes even used my phone to take a picture of a cypher and then write in information right on top of the image. The trailer for the game had such a cypher. I considered using a spreadsheet so i could easily swap my guesses out but a table seemed easier for future reference if the same cypher were to be used.
Mysteries of time include 1847, 1963, 2014, and the TBA what connects them all you might ask but to discover this you will need to play the game. But this plays into the intrigue keeping the larger mystery going while solving many smaller mysteries that work together to tell the story. If you are familiar with the concept of a memory palace that’s what this reminds me of but the game version. This is a real technique that can be used to improve memory recall but is also visually depicted in things like Sherlock Holmes but the idea goes way back to ancient times being employing the visual memory to create details that make things more easily able to be recalled. I only tell you this in that it helped me in starting out the game to think of it in this way. As it is a labyrinth like maze it can be hard to remember where a clue will help you if it is not nearby if you don’t want to constantly be looking at your notes or photographic memory.
All and all this is a masterpiece of a puzzle game full of mystery and style. The only thing that holds Lorelei and the Laser Eyes back is its semi narrow demographic of players. This is not a game for everyone, its not a game that should be casually picked up and played for 20 minutes a month, its a game that deserves to be played in a short time, it requires it I dare say. What players get out of it is a sense of accomplishment throughout over every little victory and unwrapping the mystery over the course of the game. The only other quality of life thing is the buttons are too simple a dedicated confirm, back, and memory button would have just been easier. It runs on direction controls as well as a single button which to me made it very tedious if clicked in error on something. Overall though Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is easily a 9/10 for lovers of deep layered puzzles full of mystery.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is available for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Greg Vander Velde
I've been a life long nerd and video game junkie known to associate with the likes of Link, Nathan Drake, Batman, and Master Chief. I'm a filmmaker by profession, but spend lots of time behind a controller escaping the real world. @GregVelde on Instagram/Twitter/YouTube
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