The Gateway Trilogy

A very enjoyable puzzle game, beautifully designed - also quite spooky!

I played the first two games on Miniclip tons of times with my family when I was younger, and they are some of my favorite games of all time. I replayed them today with my mom along with the new one and they hold up incredibly well. The puzzles are creative and clever, and are just challenging enough to be fun without being frustrating. The story in particular is what really sells the games though. The storyline of the second game is so heavy and unsettling, yet so flawlessly told and grounded in reality that it has stuck with me all 10-12 years since I first played them. The first two are available for free online, so I highly suggest you go and play them. I gotta say I was disappointed in the third installment. It is much more puzzle heavy and less story oriented than the first two, which isn't really a plus. The puzzles are not creative at all. They are just basic tile puzzles that you have probably played before in another game, so all of the fun from the first games of discovering what the puzzle even is and solving it with multiple objects and such is all gone. The puzzles are not bad, but not terribly well balanced in difficulty. Some were just annoying to do, and were frustrating and tedious rather than fun, and others were just way too easy that I was able to just randomly walk around and beat them without thinking. The storyline is also not that great. It feels like it was trying to mimick the unsettling nature of the first two without really considering why they are like that, and it completely misses the idea of realism and the important issues brought up in the second game. As the ending tries to tie in with the second game and is more abstract and just weird in nature, it feels totally out of place, and doesn't add anything to the second game's story (which didn't need anything more to begin with). If this was free I'd say give it a shot, but it is just not worth spending money on a game that's not all that fun. Disappointed

Quirky one-of-its kind game. Minimalist graphics, simple plot. Enjoyed the creepy/mysterious music, it went well with some puzzle scenes. Ah, the puzzles, not bad in normal mode. My puzzle fav is still part II. Part III was kinda trippy-- Ending made me go .. "What just happened?". And it did lag after continuously playing for 4 hours. Just a matter of saving the game, quitting & coming back to it. I also believe it depends on your PC specs? Anyway, I'd recommend this if you want to enjoy some simple mind-solving games with some background story to keep ya a little bit entertained.

The third game sucks. Just a bunch of boring and brutal floor tile puzzles that take forever to solve. All the unique and weird parts from the first two games are very few. Just play the first two games on Flashpoint.

First two games were unique and enjoyable. Third game has a few interesting puzzles but it's unfortunately ruined by way too many "light tile" walking puzzles that are tedious, boring, and annoying to complete. It's ultimately not fun and rather disappointing.

[h1]𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗮𝗺𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘆:[/h1] [hr][/hr] For the sake of this being a trilogy, I will split this section of the review into 3 sections, for each of the games included. However, I will start with this: Preserving flash games is very important. I am glad I finally had a chance to replay this childhood classic along with a new chapter. The fact that Cockroach Inc. and The Sleeping Machine have helped to preserve the legacy of Anders Gustafsson and Erik Zaring with "The Gateway Trilogy" and "[url=store.steampowered.com/bundle/477/The_Dream_Machine__Full_Game/]The Dream Machine[/url]" is truly amazing. This collection also comes with commentary on its creation and its design philosophy which is a treat. Now let's start with [h2]Gateway I (2006)[/h2] [hr][/hr] The start in a series of unique point-and-click puzzle games. It laid the foundation of what was to come. Puzzles start off with item interactions before introducing complex interactions such as floor tiles, pattern matching, environmental interactions, and numbers. Nothing too crazy, but it jogs the brain and doesn't take too long to complete while laying the foundation for the second game, [h2]Gateway II (2007)[/h2] [hr][/hr] Continues what the first game started. More complex puzzles requiring a bit more thought. There is a mandatory section where a man is hooked up to an electrical shock machine and he, more than likely, will need to be shocked multiple times to complete the puzzle. Insane that I played this as a 10 year old, I know. Game is mostly completable without a guide. The ending puzzle and the notepad puzzles are nice brainteasers. [h2]Gateway III (2020)[/h2] [hr][/hr] This game seems to be a bit divisive and I see why. Most of the kinds of puzzles that showed up in the first two games are just straight up gone. Instead, the game heavily focuses on floor tile puzzles, with a few item based puzzles at the beginning and late-game, which is a shame since the brainteasers that are missing from this game are simply replaced with floor tile puzzles that range from "moderately difficult" to "unfair without a guide". While this game is longer than the other two because of the multitude of puzzles, there is a lack of depth that shows. [h1]𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆:[/h1] [hr][/hr] Gateway II is the most story-driven of the 3 games, followed by III, then I. It is also the one with the darkest story, in the opinion of someone who played it when they were 10 and are now 28. However, the story feels very Lynchian and obscure. I'm sure the games all relate to each other, but it feels like grasping for straws in my mind. Not to say that is a bad thing, but these are very weird games to say the least. It is weird that the Gateway II had dialogue in understandable text while III only has Braille. I wonder if there's anything hiding in there...? [h1]𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗼:[/h1] [hr][/hr] The music is atmospheric, dark and weird, which I like. Characters have reversed Dalak dialogue from Doctor Who. Stingers are tense and foreboding. Me likey. [h1]𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗵𝗶𝗰𝘀:[/h1] [hr][/hr] It's a very minimal series of flash games, so it's nothing crazy. I really like the art direction and the voids of space where many of the puzzle take place. [h1]𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗩𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝗰𝘁:[/h1] [hr][/hr] I like the first 2 games. The last one can be a bit of a stinker, but even so, a 2:1 ratio isn't that bad. I think that if you enjoy flash games, puzzle games, or point & clicks, you should give this one a try. 7/10 [hr][/hr] Review posted July 3rd, 2026.

Totally recommend it!! Such a great puzzle game & obviously a lot of "outside of the box" creativity, thought, humour & planning has been applied by the producers of this wonderful game. I still chuckle when thinking of that poor guy hooked up to the computer while attempting to do math questions without getting zapped! lol..... I think i saw that they are the same producers who created the masterpiece called "The Dream Machine" which i am also presently enjoying. I don't think any of the games i have bought up to now has made me laugh so much such as Alice's explanation to Victor of her vivid dream on the cruise ship....the humour & again the creativity is outstanding. I can't fault either game even if i tried (if a game(s) can be called a work of art then both these deserve the title.) Good going, producers & i will look forward to any future games done by u! BRAVO!!

Let me be abundantly clear: Gateway and Gateway 2 are worth the $10 by themselves, to ME. I have an extremely strong nostalgia for them, so I personally feel they are worth the admission. Gateway 3 is a massive letdown. Gateway is a simple, minimalist, atmospheric point-and-click adventure game with a number of equally simple logic puzzles, alongside a handful of basic movement puzzles. These are by no means mind-breaking, but a handful can be a bit obtuse (in a charming sorta way). The atmosphere itself carries a lot of the game. There's just this looming, overarching feeling of "otherness" to everything. Like you belong here...but also don't at the same time. Narrative elements are sparse, but what is there is enough to raise an eyebrow and keep the intrigue going. The ultimate goal seemingly to escape the bizarre dimension you exist in. Gateway 2 is like the first game, but better in almost every conceivable way. The puzzles are more varied, the atmosphere is even more foreboding, and the narrative is downright chilling at points. The central plot following a traumatized girl who is haunted by her mother's watchful eye, that you end up enraptured by immediately following your escape from the previous game. Not high art, but for a 2000s flash-based point-and-click, it was extremely solid. Being old enough now to better understand the concepts present in the narrative made me appreciate it even more. Gateway 3 feels like a joke. Gone are the decent point-and-click puzzles. Instead we have a tedious series of tile-based puzzles. Now the previous two games did have tile puzzles, and they were a notable weak point, but they never really overstayed their welcome. Here...it's almost entirely tile puzzles. Additionally, all of the text dialogue is written in braille for some reason. Least until the ending. Which, speaking of. The little bit of story we get at the end feels like it takes a massive dump on everything that came before it. And it sucks that they seem to want to show it off the third game as a highlight.\ Overall, I recommend this collection on the first two games alone. Even if it's just out of curiosity. Just don't waste time on the third game. I read some other reviews discussing bugs and performance issues, they must have since been fixed, as the only issues I've had so far were the shoddy collision detection regarding the Clone towards the end of the third game, and some minor text misplacement in the second game. Outside of that all three games performed flawlessly.