The Pilgrim

I couldn't help but be drawn to the description of this game's Steam page, which is a first for my reviews and not necessarily an indictment, but I was at least hoping for the word "triangle" or some allusion to triangles since this game has so many triangles. There was a very dramatic intro scene where the triangle lost all their shape friends, and overall the game is a lot more dramatic than I can seem to understand, as well as my Pilgrim, who blankly jaunts along as my mindless thrall in this abstract anglo-verse. Once I return the shape disciples to triang-god, the Pilgrim is begone from this camera, his role fulfilled. The game has a smooth arc of Mind game fun by paring down the spotter techniques of the point-and-click genre into a polyomino set, which ends up putting the Land on the altar by design. Every shape and camera structure follows in service to the Pilgrim and not me; the game of the spotter rather than the mind of the explorer. While it is a reimagining of "hidden object" games as you say, I'd say that point-and-click adventures beat you to the punch, where the "hidden object" is a hidden context of objects across different screens. Gorogoa inverts the concept by making the panel perspectives themselves as the object to be scrutinized, less so than the diverse objects placed within them. Unpacking removes the attention from the mechanics of the spotter entirely and instead places it on a Heart game, on the revealing of an important object; what it means for the unseen characters to own it and for the player to consider such things about every object in their possession. Lots of puzzle games like Braid make a passive attempt at delivering a narrative, which more easily runs the risk of getting ignored without a writer's reputation to back them up; even if some exposition may have been appreciated, it's perhaps equally appreciated that you prevented it from cluttering a small & simple experience. The Pilgrim gets a B for Bauhaus Dreams.