The Labyrinth

Booted up The Labyrinth thinking it was just another maze game. Turns out it’s a surprisingly fun little puzzle adventure. – Levels are tricky enough to make you think, but not so hard you rage quit – Controls are simple and responsive, which makes exploring satisfying – Visuals are cozy and easy to read — you won’t get lost because the game is ugly – Not the deepest experience ever, but it’s fun to lose yourself in for a bit – At one point I ran in circles for 5 minutes and laughed at myself 7.5/10. The Labyrinth isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s a solid, enjoyable maze game that’s worth a try.

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"The Labyrinth" is basically a ripoff of Hack/Rogue but made with Adobe Flash (don't laugh, seriously this guy tried charging money for an Adobe Flash text game) that eschews the Ascii art in Hack for some pixelcrap and text. It's quite remarkable anyone would consider publishing something this bad in 2021, for money. That's right, this guy decided to compete, for profit, against Far Cry 6 and Hitman 3, in 2021, with text and pixelcrap. Jesus wept, that's hilarious. Anyway this was a terrible failure on Steam Direct. Let's break it down. Let's talk about the visuals. There are none. This is text only. In 1977, Zork launched as a text adventure because there was no other technology available. We have had 3D graphics accelerators in every gaming PC since the mid-1990s. There is no excuse in 2026 for a "game" that presents the player with nothing but text menus and written descriptions. This isn't a game, it's a novel without the quality writing, dressed up as one. PC gamers deserve better than a Notepad file with a launch icon. The developer chose not to do the job of a real game developer and create meaningful bespoke levels, narrative based gameplay progression and so on. Instead, they decided that "Procgen IS content!" and lazily tried to use procgen algorithms to create infinite, samey, repetitive, soulless levels, because that's a lot less work. As a result of this poor decision, the game gets tired and repetitive almost immediately. Developers must learn that procgen is a terrible substitute for creating real content. It should not be used as "ez-mode" for content creation, as the developer tried to do here. This game is fairly dated at 5 years old... and even back then it looked old and busted compared to contemporary, professionally made 3D games of the same period. It looked bad then, it looks worse now. Next is pricing and what value this has for gamers. There's no initial download price, but the developer was charging $5 USD for this. Price barriers, especially on low quality products, can be a direct cause of failure. It seems like a nice gesture for the game to have no up-front cost anymore, but it also tells us that the game wasn't good enough to succeed as a paid product. This is also a bit of a slap in the face to anyone who showed enough questionable judgement to pay money for this... nobody got refunded. Despite having no up-front cost, this failed to appeal to the 130 million+ gamers on Steam. SteamDB shows this peaked at [b]only 6 concurrent players[/b]... this is a dismal public reception. This was so bad they couldn't even give it away. Bearing in mind that free games don't add +1 to your game collector count, should you bother adding this to your library and downloading it? What's the verdict? Nope. This isn't worth downloading. I didn't pay money, but I still feel ripped off.

The Labyrinth is a first person horror game built around the idea of trying to escape a maze that does not stay the same for very long. I like the basic setup because I am not just walking through a dark place looking for a key. I have to explore the maze, activate altars and find the exit while something is hunting me. The game can be played alone or with up to six people, and I can also play through local or online co op. Since it only entered Early Access recently, I am judging what is actually available now rather than what it might become later. The flashlight mechanic is probably my favourite part. The creatures hide in the darkness, so I need the light to see what is around me, but using it also makes me easier to find. Noise matters as well, which means running around or talking too much can become a problem when something is nearby. I like that because it gives the maze a simple risk and reward system. I cannot just keep my flashlight on and sprint through everything without thinking. Sometimes staying quiet and moving carefully feels like the safer option. I also like the way the maze can change while I am inside it. Corridors can close behind me, meaning I cannot always rely on a route that I already know. That works well with the horror because getting lost is part of the danger instead of just being an inconvenience. The main objective is to activate the altars and eventually unlock the exit, but every altar I activate makes the situation more dangerous. That gives me a reason to feel nervous even when I am making progress, because getting closer to escaping also makes the maze more threatening. The co op side has some good ideas too. I can revive an ally after they go down, but I only have a limited amount of time to get them back up. The proximity voice chat is also a nice touch because communication itself can become dangerous when the creatures react to noise. There are also Versus and social deduction modes in the current Early Access version, along with a daily challenge. I like having those extra modes because they give the game more to offer than simply repeating the same escape attempt. The biggest weakness for me is that the game is still very early in its development. The current version is playable, but the developer has already said that the full release is planned to add another labyrinth type, more monsters and powers, additional rituals and expanded progression. That makes it difficult for me to judge the long term value right now. I can see the foundation working, but there is not enough finished content yet for me to treat it like a complete horror game. The fact that it is Early Access is important here because some of the limitations are clearly things that are expected to change. I also think the horror depends heavily on how much the maze and creatures manage to keep me unsettled. The flashlight, darkness, shifting corridors and sound system all work together nicely, but these ideas need enough enemy variety and environmental variety to stay scary over time. At the moment, the game has the right foundation for that, but I would want the planned additions to make the experience less predictable. I also appreciate that there is a story to uncover through fragments left around the labyrinth, because that gives me something to think about beyond simply finding the exit. Overall, The Labyrinth has a solid horror concept and I think the combination of darkness, noise, changing corridors and altar objectives works well. I especially like that the flashlight is both useful and dangerous, because it makes something as simple as seeing where I am feel like a decision. The current Early Access state keeps me from rating it much higher because there is still a lot of planned content missing, but the core experience is already clear and playable. For me, it is a promising horror game that needs more content and polish before it can reach its full potential, but there is enough here to make me interested in seeing where it goes. Rating: 7/10

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