Blue Prince

Intriguing story, lots of great puzzles of increasing difficulty. Very artsy in that it defies expectations and messes with you.

Blue Prince: the double meaning of the title is a clue about how the author uses puns in the many puzzles that dot the game. Once our avatar inherits the house, the game turns to a cinematic and the usual end credits. Yet this is just the first part of the game. To this point, many questions and mysteries about the house, the PC’s family and the world around them remain. Unveiling them (not all of them, at the end of the game many unanswered questions remain) is the main part of Blue Prince, the most interesting and, by far, the most challenging – much more than mastering the rooms management. I played many puzzle games, form Myst series to Black Mirror, Return of the Obra Dinn and the Talos Principle among others. Blue Prince was, by far, the most challenging. Solving puzzles requires not only logic, but also solid notions of English for those, like me, whose first language is not English. It also requires a crack to maths and even some knowledge in chess for one of the most important puzzles. Taking screenshots (I took almost 500 of them) and notes is essential; without them you’ll quickly be lost among the mass of hints that dot each room of the house. Contrary to many other similar games I played, I gave up and reluctantly went to the Internet to get some solutions I could not find by myself. In many cases, I resigned myself to solve puzzles by trial and error rather than relying on vague clues. But the reward is worth it. The lore that slowly unveils is worth a solid RPG. It is a real shame that there won’t be a sequel to this fascinating game.