Creaks

A weird, wry and wholesome underground puzzler with spellbinding art direction and music.

Creaks is a delight from start to finish

The Czech studio best known for point-and-click adventures Samorost and Machinarium brings its idiosyncratic genius to the puzzle platformer

Creaks is one of PS4's very best games of 2020 so far. Its commitment to continually evolving its mechanics makes for a phenomenal puzzling experience packed full of surprises and elating moments. With a stunning art style to boot as well as a narrative which reveals itself in all the right ways, Creaks offers an unforgettable ride that can be considered truly special.

Fans of clever puzzles and masterfully told dark fairytales will delight in Creaks. Bursting with atmosphere and quirky style, Amanita's latest is full of clever puzzles and wordless storytelling. Its distinctive flavour won't be to everyone's taste, but this is an impeccably told fairytale that will also give your brain a thorough workout.

Creaks renovates a well-worn genre, delivering one of the most satisfying indie puzzle-platformers in some time. Between its stunning visual and audio design, absorbing world, and perfectly-balanced puzzles, it's hard to find serious fault with any part of this game's construction. If you're a fan of puzzles or Amanita Design's past games, you need to grab a flashlight and delve in.

You can clearly see that Amanita Design spend way more resources and time on Creaks, but the move from classic point-n-click gameplay was not very smooth. The game is massive and is undoubtedly gorgeous, but sometimes it feels like it's drags on for way too long and the gameplay becomes quite repetitive. The feeling of true excitement that you get for solving a head scratching puzzle is also nowhere to be seen. But all of that means very little when you take Creaks for what it is, especially if you look at it with a fresh pair of eyes.

Creak is probably not the new classic one would expect from this talented studio. Nonetheless, the title combines the most important strengths of Amanita Design and ensures a few hours of entertainment.

Amanita Design has once again delivered the magic previously seen in the like of Machinarium. Of course the main praise for Creaks comes from the stunningly gorgeous design, but behind that there's some amazing puzzles and a story that can keep you interested right up to the end. Creaks are a must play for everyone that loves puzzle games.

Familiar puzzle-platform staples are polished to a high sheen in Creaks. It might not break new ground in the genre, but no-one can tell a wordless story quite like Amanita Design.