Helix: Descent N Ascent

달성률 100 퍼센트 찍고 올립니다. 읽을 수 있는 문자가 숫자 1~9 뿐인 흑백의 아름다운 스피리츄얼한 세계에서 승천을 위하여 순례길에 오르십시오 당신은 다섯 가지 능력을 조합하여 당신앞을 가로막는 장애물들을 물리치고 시련을 해쳐 나가야 합니다. 각 능력의 조합은 당신도 몰랐던 능력의 숨겨진 놀라운 힘을 이끌어 낼 것이며 그 힘을 어떻게 활용 할 지는 당신의 능력에 달려있습니다! 아 순례길은 당신의 생각보다 '넓습니다' 한번 쯤 돌아보는 여유를 잊지 마시길

Easily my favorite puzzle game of 2026. The art in this game is straight-up gorgeous and the little animation cutscenes are incredible. Very weird thing to say in isolation, but the impact frames in the one cutscene of your poor character hitting the ground is very satisfying in an "oh! damn! that looks like it hurt" kind of way. Just the way it was directed and brought to life really brings out the kinetic force behind the contact. Very, very, good work. A lot of the exploration in the game also works in tandem to the monochromatic art style's benefit, giving the game a sense of mystery in uncovering everything. The one scene in world 2 where you're given this vista of a dark city from far away was beautiful. It felt somewhat similar to playing The Neverhood for the first time. Given the broad lack of exposition and leaving it up to the player (good!), it felt like exploring and trying to make sense of a largely alien environment and slowly seeing how everything works. Naturally, the comparison isn't so 1:1 on the emotional front, given The Neverhood has a distinctly wacky and comedic tone to it, while Helix has a more dark/moody ambience, but they still both make you feel like you're in a completely new world and I really respect them both for nailing that. Gameplay is another area where this game shines bright. Every ability in this game has the ability to be paired with another in some form, with even some of the paired abilities complementing a third ability that you may have. Given that you frequently swap out abilities, choose to lose some, and regain some depending on which glyph configurations you choose, it keeps everything very fresh. Especially combined with the fact that you don't really retread the same areas all that much (outside of the hub areas, obviously), and some areas will have secrets that are only accessible to certain ability pairs or triplets. Badass Mongoose managed to make this really flexible and fluid system of ability chaining work that I've seen many many other games fail to stick the landing on, so major kudos to making it so entertaining (even if some puzzles made me feel like an idiot for a bit ;)) If you want an indie puzzle game with sublime art, very solid mechanics, and a cute and curious fellow to play as, I would heavily recommend giving Helix a try.