He Who Watches

A few hours of gravity-induced headaches were enough to convince me that this is a modern classic. It's HARD, like really hard, but the level design is flawless : levels are small, yet seem impossible until you figure them out suddenly. Bobby, if you're around here, my deepest respects : you've achieved puzzle greatness.

Puzzle gamers! Check out He Who Watches. It's grid-based (but 3d), requiring manipulation of gravity and change of perspective layered onto grappling hook, sokoban, box/lever (all the usual). Make no mistake; this game is challenging! Want to know more? Check out my Draknek & Friends showcase here: https://www.cshpicone.com/gaming/developer-showcase/developer-showcase-draknek-friends For more niche curation, follow me at: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/27440015-CSH-Picone/ Want more honest niche & indie reviews? Check out: https://www.cshpicone.com/gaming

As tight of level design as you can have in a first person puzzle game. Really good at retaining the same core concept in every puzzle, and throwing you different mechanics which interact with each other in a way where it genuinely feels very fun to move the puzzle pieces, even when you cannot manage to find the damn solution. All of it is very very very frictionless, it’s done in a way where it’s all turn by turn interactions, almost like a box pusher like Baba is you. In this same philosophy, forget moving like any other 3D game, you move on a grid, and despite your ability of free mouselook, you can only shoot in the 4 cardinal directions. All of it might sound restrictive, but it does not feel like so, the movement keys can be inputted as fast as I can think of them and whenever I have to wait for a box to fall before the game allows me to move, I can basically press any game control for the game to speed up the animation, Also, undo and redo are an option so that avoids a lot of repetitiveness. Like I mentioned earlier, this game is a box pushing game adapted for a 3D level, it’s hard to overstate how hard this sounds to pull of without it being a nightmare to play, but they definitely did. The puzzles become challenging pretty fast, but it’s excused by the fact that every level gets a hint in the form of way more straight forward optional level that gives you the mechanic to be used to solve the level. It’s a genius way to do sorts of tutorials while giving the player the ability to experiment on their own. Still, none of he solutions there are complicated, the levels are all very short, it’s all about using a declination of a mechanic you’ve discovered earlier, while taking in account the current level’s geometry. All of it feels so rewarding when you find the solution, something that takes 2 and 10 minutes for each level on average for me. I am not far enough in the game to judge more than that, considering the game promises you secrets I’m looking forward to finding those as I continue ahead. But in conclusion, if you want to scratch that same itch as the one of Portal, Manifold Garden or Antichamber, you will find it here.

interesting mechanics that result in good aha moments. puzzles all build on each other and the can of wormholes hint system is used well for the moments that I found myself stuck

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This was an extremely fun and challenging game for me and I thoroughly enjoyed my time playing it. Even when I would get suck on a puzzle the Guidances (present in most levels) offer more than enough insight without just outright handing me the solution. The only places where I actually had to seek help outside of the game were related to a handful of the secrets and I managed to resolve most of them myself simply through observation, trial and error, or a couple of times accidently. [spoiler] Garden 3 particularly perplexed me for some time but some people in the discussions managed to help me understand it [/spoiler] Overall if you like puzzle games this is a really good one

One of the harder puzzle games, but you just have to appreciate how intricate every aspect of the game can become. At the same time you can somewhat tell, if your approach is bringing you somewhere. I had multiple levels take me multiple attempts of coming back with a fresh perspective, because I was just not seeing the path. That being said I always found some new way to do it (I have not used the "inspirations" tho, so that is a good way to lessen difficulty). There was basically always another way to think about it, that I didn't try. I am posting this, even tho I only finished basically half the game, because I am very much in awe with the feeling of solving another tough level. So far not a single solution felt unearned to me, because every puzzle solution seemed reasonable. Most games recycle the same aspect just with a different difficulty, but here every room has some uniqueness to it so far. Definitly recommend this to fans of puzzle games!