Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

Lorelei and the Lasers Eyes' puzzles are clever, its vibes perfectly eerie, and the desire it evokes to uncover every inch of its intricately interwoven mystery is irresistible.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is one of Simogo's finest achievements, expertly interlocking its cryptic puzzle design with a chilling narrative.

With Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, Sayonara Wild Hearts developer Simogo weaves together interlocking puzzles, infinite timelines, and supernatural mischief with only minimal clumsiness.

A thrilling mystery that asks players to rise to its challenges, and rewards them when they do.

It's the sort of game that needs a notebook and pen at hand; Simogo will actually provide you with this directive in a Lorelei and the Laser Eyes instruction manual found early on in the game. Twenty-five hours into Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, I've got dozens of pages of madman scribbles, notes that would look like nonsense to anyone but me. Some of the puzzles I worked on for hours without even opening the game itself. On one particularly hard (and optional) puzzle that required no knowledge of the game itself, I asked my sister for help. Days later, she sent me a photo of the answer, scrawled out on a work-branded Post-It note. When we got the answer, it seemed so, so obvious. Simogo has really found the recipe for making you feel so dumb, and just as quickly, the most brilliant woman on Earth.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an intricate puzzle box of interconnected parts. At times it can feel overwhelming, but ultimately this stylish noir's captivating puzzle design anthology and spellbinding story feels like an entirely new and contemporary kind of puzzle game.

I don’t know that you can consider yourself a successful puzzle game if you don’t hit at least some confusing barriers that feel impassable. Finally overcoming those hurdles is what makes the genre so compelling, and Lorelei and the Laser Eyes finds that successful balance of making you feel smart more often than it makes you feel dumb. Couple that with a mystery worth unraveling, fourth-wall-breaking commentary, and unexpected reality-bending moments sending you to bizarre places, and you are left with a fantastic puzzle game that I already wish I could play again for the first time.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a riveting puzzle game, which uses its eerie visuals and elusive story as an intrinsic element of the experience rather than a mere design affectation. It is a game that asks subtle questions about the nature of creativity and play, and later it takes a breathtakingly meta turn that will thrill those who remember Kojima’s tricks in the Metal Gear Solid series. It is also a meditation on the troubled relationship between art and commerce, and quite frankly, there could not be a more timely concern for a video game to explore.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an intense puzzle box game that draws you in deeper the more of its mysteries you unravel. Yes, it can be frustrating, but the satisfaction you feel for completing each puzzle is heightened because it asks so much more of you as a player. The story that seems unimportant at first quickly becomes an engrossing and stylistic mystery thriller that will keep you guessing until the end, staying up for just one more hour in the hopes of seeing the next twist or big reveal.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an amalgamation of influences living alongside one another in the same way the hotel in which it is set seems to hold so many times at once. It’s a reflection of the game’s biggest questions. What is the point of creating and consuming art? Is it a curse, or a gift? That’s the big mystery at the heart of Lorelia and the Laser Eyes. The answer is up to interpretation, but as it exists within such a carefully crafted maze of twisting puzzles and story beats, I can only assume this kind of gift for creating art is just that, a gift. And we, the players, are its lucky recipients. At least that’s my perception of it, and that’s about as close to the truth as I’ll get.