Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

In short; if you’re expecting puzzles with mechanical depth, you’ll be disappointed. If you’re looking for a game that plays more like a detective game with a lot of simple puzzles and a funky aesthetic, you might enjoy this. And with that out of the way, let me ramble on about why I was disappointed with this game. The presentation (art, music, sound design and so on) is spectacular. The aesthetics and vibe of this game carried a lot of the weaker elements on its back and kept me engaged until the end. If this game wasn’t oozing with style as much as it was, I most likely would have stopped playing after a few hours of struggle. There where a few moments where the visuals made me misunderstand puzzles, like unrelated puzzles looking aesthetically similar (and in my head; connected in some way), and unrelated textures looking like a part of a puzzle. But based on what I've read of other peoples reviews, this issues seems more like a problem with me being primed to recognise and associate patterns in puzzle games; when clearly this game doesn't have a lot of interconnectiveness between its puzzles. The controls and menu interactions are clunky and laborious; which was clearly a conscious choice to imitate old survival horror games that it is inspired by. I personally didn’t find the controls to be enough of a deterrent to stop playing the game, but they were a constant sand paper that grinded my patience over time; hindering my overall enjoyment of the other aspects of the game. The puzzles feel like they were pulled straight out of a game like Resident Evil or Silent Hill, which makes sense, since the whole game feels like a homage to that genre of games; with its fixed camera angles and exploration of a large mansion-like environment. The problem I had with most of the puzzles, is that they didn’t have much cohesion to them; most puzzles were isolated, shallow brain teasers that would fit perfectly well in an action game as a palette cleanser; not as the main content. There is a distinct lack of communication to the player about what a puzzle is asking from you and at what scope you’re supposed to think about the puzzle. In most cases, I didn’t know if a puzzle was something I could solve by just looking at the puzzle; by the information contained in the room or if I needed information from another location. The few times this information was communicated well; the puzzles felt really good, but from my experience the majority of the time I had to either guess the scope and type, or look up hints. Many of the mechanics in the game felt very…unnessesary or under utilized. From the start of the game, you can see that you have a few statistics on your character menu. You’d think that these statistics would hold some relevance at some point even as a “one time gimmick”, but not really. At some point in the game, you are presented with an element of “danger”; a chance to die if you fail a memory game; which feels very unnecessary when the game isn’t designed with high stakes in mind. These dangers don’t really add any sense of risk (which I assume was the intention), since the only cost of failure is losing the time between your last save (aka. If you save constantly, you might lose like 1-5 minutes of walking). As for the story, it’s clearly the main point of the game, and everything in the game is in service of it. In the beginning I was very excited about the mysteries and wanted to know more about the strange and eccentric characters you’re presented with; I read all the documents I came across and kept mental notes of any connections I made. But overtime, the inconvenience of the controls; the obtuse nature of the puzzles and general erratic phasing of said puzzles; grinded my enthusiasm to a point where I was only interested in finishing the game as fast as possible. At the end of the game when I was finally given the answers to the questions I was so interested in figuring out…I was left underwhelmed. Clearly I wasn’t the target audience for this title, and clearly this game has a lot of good elements to it. Because if it didn’t; I wouldn’t have finished it. I’ve read that this game has some randomization to the layout of the puzzles (tho I’m not sure to what extent). So maybe my playthrough just happened to be setup in a way that showed the game in a bad light. Honestly a lot of the time I felt like I was somehow playing a completely different version of the game, because there were so many instances where I would have the opposite problem to what the rest of the player base was having. Like when I would get a key and hold on to it for so long that I look up where to use it; only to realize that most people are asking about how to find the key. Or when I cannot find a way to access a large area of the game and the first door that gives me access to it…is an optional shortcut; meaning that the game expected me to already have found a way to both sides of the door before opening the door. The more I think about my experience with the game the more confused I am of how different it felt to what others where describing.

I greatly enjoyed it at first, but over time the game became obnoxious. You are only able to use one button for everything and it can be frustrating maneuvering between menus and through the mansion. There are some great puzzles and some not so great puzzles. The story was interesting at first, but it quickly becomes obvious what's going on and the game keeps acting like it's revealing something important to you. In my opinion, some of the puzzles feel like they were added just to extend the game's playtime. The atmosphere is excellent. It's like a Resident Evil game without the combat. I think I would have enjoyed this game a lot more if it was shorter.

This non-recommendation is very lukewarm. In short - the game suffers from what I'd call "The Witness Syndrome" - the presentation is pleasing but the puzzles might as well be published on a piece of paper. The game is nicely stylized, uses interesting way of narrating the story etc. The photographic memory section and the map section are great additions to make the game playable without taking a million screenshots. Also having a journal of tasks is nice - even if there is barely any information - some way of adding custom notes would be great. --- However, there are flaws that make this game not enjoyable. More specifically there are 2 issues: smaller one is the controls (menu navigation reusing buttons in a weird way, no searching in the memories, pretty much controller centric etc. - you get used to it), the major one is however the puzzles. The main features of a puzzle are 1) having all required pieces, 2) theorizing a solution and then 3) applying the theory. The reward is in finding a solution for a new type of a task. Puzzle is not fun if it hides pieces required for the solution, if there are multiple solutions that feel equivalent but only one is applicable and lastly, if the solution is obvious but actually performing it (i.e. mechanically solving the puzzle) is cumbersome. Puzzle is also not fun if it repeats or if you are told a solution that you then have to perform (not talking about signposting here). Lorelei violates all of these with impunity at different places, let's go with some examples: [spoiler] Shortcut door puzzles feel like a filler - solve a simiple puzzle from a book, punch in a number. Yawn. Initial tasks - collect a letter/note with underlined text - solve the same-ish task 5 times where you take a random number and that is a code to crack a safe. Magic ball - walk to place A, find a note with phone number, walk to place B, get instructions, walk to place A, punch in instructions. That's not even a puzzle. There's nothing to solve. Walk around the whole black and white place - not noticing a lamp you can turn up to open a secret door. Nothing pointing to that being a thing. Having to click through supercomputer solution knowing that you don't have all the info just to get more info about what are you supposed to collect. There is also a consistency violation where you start with having all the clues in the same room as the puzzle, which then disappears but not for all the puzzles and you can't really tell when it's the case. [/spoiler] Anyway, point being is that it falls out of the flow zone too often - instead of puzzle/story/puzzle/story (or puzzle, exploration, story) you go from puzzle to being lost and looking for a thing you missed somewhere because you can't progress and the routine is at least broken up by the (albeit repetitive) [spoiler]remember the scene[/spoiler] parts. I am fine with some amount of moon logic. It's rather on theme for the game. I am ok with combination locks and the whole escape room feeling but at some point it just does not work well together for this one.

Solid puzzles, Lynchian atmosphere and a tale that's not as rich as I was expecting

Its mysterious, artsy, and clever. Its different from most puzzle games and feels like an old fashioned resident evil without the fighting. Its not perfect however, if you're not using a controller the controls are kind of obnoxious you use a single button for everything besides walking around. The puzzles themselves are easy to apply logic to and feel good when you figure it out with only a handful so left field that i have no idea how anyone would assume to piece it together in such a way. I'm glad this was recommended to me on NADPOD its not the greatest puzzle game ive ever played but it definitely scratches the itch

Great and engaging puzzles. The main story is interesting too but it kinda lost me towards the end. Still had lots of fun solving all the riddles.

Thank you "Lorelei and the Laser Eyes" for reminding me how much of a f*cking Neanderthal I am and why I choose to resolve most of my gaming dilemmas with "murder-murder-kill-kill" approach rather than using my brain.

incredible game, i really really love this one. probably one of my fav puzzle games of all time.

This is a great puzzle game that does need pen and paper. I really love this game! 100% recommended.

Amazing puzzle game, very accessible, the only puzzles that stumped me weren't necessary to beat the game and even those puzzles I could complete with a hint. If a puzzle was necessary to beat the game I could always solve it with the information the game presented, sometimes I needed to take a break from the game and come back to the puzzle though. 9/10 game, highly recommend

I played this game with my partner; we both enjoyed feverishly updating our notebooks to solve the latest mysteries. We have spent a lot of time the last few months lamenting that there are not more games like this. The hunt for more high-quality mystery games did lead us to The Case of the Golden Idol and Obra Dinn, and those are both fantastic. But Lorelei still stands on its own as an incredible game, super cool style, great way to explore and handle multiple mysteries at a time; all that I wish we'd get more of. Wish I could play it again for the first time / 10

A horror puzzle game, with the emphasis on puzzle. Some would call the genre "Metroidbrainia" - the same genre as Myst and the Witness. What ties it to these other two games is the element that new areas are unlocked by acquiring new knowledge and understanding about the internal logic of the game. Most of the magic happens inside your own brain when a puzzle - or a facet of several puzzles - "clicks" into place. The puzzles are great, but so are the story, music and overall atmosphere. The colours are mostly black and white with the occasional splash of red. Best enjoyed alone with a glass of something dry and no plans for tomorrow.

I'm tapping out. The style is cool but it can only carry me so far. This game is majorly tedious. Most puzzles are either moon logic or baby logic with extra steps, some are just straight up arithmetic. More often than not, it's a scavenger hunt for documents telling you how to solve things, alot of slowwwly walking back and forth through the hotel to do puzzles that may or may not help progress the story. Most solutions are just different ways to input the same 3 numbers. Also not having a BACK BUTTON is crazy. Having to arrow over to the close button on every screen is a bad flow (you get used to it but still). If you just wanna look at a puzzle, you have to input an incorrect answer to back out of it. It even makes you do it for a 16 digit keycode. That doesn't add a fun challenge, just inconvenience It's a shame cause the style and story are very unique, especially the mixed media moments

This game is almost perfect. With the exception of small nitpicks (a couple of the shortcut puzzles are plain bad, along with a couple of other puzzles being extremely confusing due to how surface level they are ie the piano puzzle. also the move speed being pretty tiring until decently late into the game), there is almost nothing to criticize here. Beautiful accomplishment in storytelling, visual design, puzzle creation, and atmosphere.

An excellent, weird, intricate puzzle game that, like most weird puzzle games, is best experienced knowing as little as possible. I feel like most people who will like this game will be able to tell it's something they'd like from the store page, so I'll outline what might put an otherwise interested player off. This game might not be for you if: You don't want to take notes. I filled both sides of a page of loose leaf with cramped numbers, symbols, and diagrams. You are easily frustrated by clunky controls. Some of the design decisions were more focused on evoking the feel of older video games than on providing a frictionless experience. This didn't bother me at all but I've seen some people get quite upset about it so it bears mentioning. But other than that I can't think of anything. This one's really good.

Lorelei and the Laser eyes is a very good puzzle game! the gameplay i would say is most similar to that of an oldschool escape room, but like a much larger much more polished one. Despite being puzzle focused it has a surprisingly good story and an infectious atmosphere w da spooky mystery old timey thinky etc, A+ music / sound design. the puzzles themselves are SO varied which is a lot of fun, the most times a puzzle type repeats itself is like maybe 10 so they can't really grow old, even if some of them are kinda underwhelming. in the entire game there was only one puzzle i thought was fundamentally bad, and one (probably more, but one i can think of) that i felt unintentionally misguided the player in a way that wasn't fair. I think there is a bit of a problem with pacing, where one specific puzzle gates a huge chunk of progression, and also i think some info is given too early and that a lot of the late game puzzles are too easy. Overall tho it is a stellar game and (ik its only march) my front runner for goty 2025!

Solid puzzle game! Clever and interesting puzzles reminiscent of old-school Resident Evil and point-and-click games from the '90s. The hotel you explore is interesting to traverse and find the mysteries of. As for the story, it's a bit too subtle for my dumb brain, but the characters are intriguing, There are a few bottlenecks in the first few hours of the game that may have you feeling stuck, but the game picks up fast and opens up, allowing you to explore different puzzles in parallel until all pieces start coming together closer to the ending. Some of the puzzles are tough, but NONE of them felt unfair or cheap to me. It's always abundantly clear whether you already have (or not) the necessary information to solve each puzzle, so it never feels like trial and error. Clearly a lot of thought and care went into crafting the puzzles here. I enjoyed this game a lot! Kept thinking about it when I wasn't playing, eager to come back to it. Highly recommended if you like puzzle games.

Great puzzle game about art and the esoteric.

Very stylish puzzle game. I really liked that all the puzzles were very fair. The things you needed were either all close to the puzzle, or it was very clear you were missing key information. While I did get stuck sometimes, there was always a different puzzle to solve somewhere else. The overall story is interesting, but open to interpretation. A lot of things only connected for me after reading other peoples interpretations and ideas.

One of my favorite video games of all time! Such sublime design, smart puzzles, and crazy cool story. Highly recommend!

My first impression was not the best. The mechanics of the game are off-putting, and the graphics are strange. I gave it 5 minutes, and I was BEYOND hooked. This game is amazing. If you are coming off Blue Prince, this will easily satisfy you for a weekend, or longer. I LOVE this game, and everything about it. Yes the mechanics are still derpy, but it is such an amazing, creepy, dark story, that I stopped noticing. PLAY THIS

A game so good that's it broken quite a lot of other games that were on my wish list. They'll have to wait a few months before the memory has died down. It's a fairly unique game - beautifully presented and designed The whole game has a Film Noir vibe and is stylishly set in black and white. Also, in red... you can freely explore the hotel and grounds finding puzzles, riddles, and clues along the way. Slowly unravelling the mystery behind it all Although single player, this is absolutely a game that you can play with friends. I'd recommend huddling around the screen, with notebooks and pens at the ready. It's challenging but fun. On the edge of being scary, but never quite My only argument against playing this is that it'll be a long time before you find anything else that comes close. Beautiful

This was one of my absolute favorite games I played in 2024. If you're someone who likes the general aesthetic & puzzles of the original Resident Evil or Silent Hill games, you'll feel right at home with this one. The game isn't perfect - some puzzles get rather obtuse while others are so simple they made me *think* they were obtuse, and one specific gimmick makes saving often almost a necessity - but the graphics & music styles click together in such a way that it keeps things interesting all the way through. Just like some of my other favorite games, if you can handle the puzzles the game throws at you (and perhaps use a notepad to keep track of things), you'll be in for a fun ride.

I had to use a guide to nudge me in the right direction for several puzzles - particularly in the late game - but I feel no ill will toward the game itself for that. Nearly every puzzle is cleverly designed and extremely satisfying to solve. The sheer variety of puzzles on display is frankly astounding! And the story being told nonlinearly, non-explicitly elevates the game to something truly special. There is a surprising amount of emotional power to it as well, and the ending gave me a good gut punch as it revealed the true nature of everything. 9/10

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes has amazing puzzles, great atmosphere, and an intriguing story. It's definitely worth your time!

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is essentially a puzzle game with a strange, spooky atmosphere and a weird story. I enjoyed solving the problems, finding it pretty challenging. Then again it's a good feeling when you finally do work out an answer. I got stuck a couple of times which can be frustrating but I can definitely recommend the game to those who like this genre.

Oooh yeah this is a good one. Great puzzles, great narrative, absolutely outstanding visual design. Suda would love to ship games with as much substance.

I didn't expect to get addicted to this game. A lot of the negative reviews I saw were about the controls but they were definitely intended in the design. The puzzles are really at the point of being hard enough to challenge you but they can all be solved with information from the game, if you know your basic geometry and math. I admit I searched for hints and I believe at least one straight answer when my brain power was slow but I was SO INTRIGUED for advancing the story and unraveling the mysteries of the hotel. I enjoyed every second of the 20 hours I played and HIGHLY RECOMMEND this game to anyone with grey matter.

I adored every aspect of this game. It scratched the puzzle itch for me and I fear that I will not stumble across another game that fulfilled my life as much as this one did. It did require a lot of patience and moments where I had to put the game down and come back to puzzles, but everything about it was compelling. I loved the eerie air of the world, and how I got to interact with the game more by taking notes on my own. I loved that the dev team also incorporated different styles of games in it, like 8-bit and even some components that were a love letter to the early playstation days.

I lived under every-single-rock and didn't realize Lorelei was a big deal or that Simogo mattered, but I *did* know Annapurna Interactive (RIP), and so it was an easy sell for me. I'll try to make it an easy sell for you. There are 3 character models and (maybe) 14 characters, but there could also be three characters, and there could also be 30+ characters. There's a chance you're time traveling, but also just that some sadistic film director is convincing you of it through careful, traumatic gas-lighting. Your car plays music from the '60s, your outfit screams beat scene, and you're told the super computer referenced is top of the line--but it's ostensibly 2014. That sadistic film director tells you he's gay while you're dancing a tango to an original composition by the team that made Sayonara Wild Hearts, and became a disgrace by creating a film about a one-eyed cat corpse that decays in real time. Apparently, there was a performance art portion. Oh, yes. There are tampons in your bag. No, they are never explained.

A point-and-click adventure game with a strong style and quite simple but well-made puzzles. Visual style is definitely not my cup of a cheaply made coffee. Mostly, I struggled not falling asleep.

Like a huge complicated mysterious escape room! Prepare to not know what is going on! Really enjoying playing with my partner! It has old school vibe to it in the sense that the designers will frustrate you sometimes and really let you sweat till yiu figure it out

Took me about 26 hours to complete. The puzzles are great, I won't say more so I don't spoil anything. Story is... confusing. Not gonna lie, I'll Google an explanation. Lastly, running is very scuffed. I ended up walking as I couldn't be bother "replenishing my stamina".

Awesome game, my wife and I had fun playing it together for 19 hours.

I didn't really track the plot, but it made me cry so it must have been good.

at the end i had a literal stack of notes. great puzzles once you get used to how they work

[quote]I wrote this review for the [url=https://thinkygames.com/games/]Thinky Games Database.[/url] Check out the Thinky Games [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44830649-Thinky-Games/]curation group[/url] for more reviews on Steam![/quote] Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a puzzle-adventure game set in Hotel Letztes Jahr, a remote manor holding dark mysteries. In order to investigate the place and enter new rooms, you’ll have to engage with a sprawling maze of interconnected puzzles. Staged with a striking, eerie atmosphere, this intricate system is deeply tied to an elaborate story. Most of Lorelei’s puzzles rely on a mix of observation and lateral thinking. Even though they’re plentiful, they’re usually short. For instance, you may find a letter next to a locked gate, its contents highlighting a specific year: this will probably be the 4-digit combination for opening the lock. There could also be some entry-level arithmetics involved, e.g. you may have to subtract the age of the sender to find their date of birth as the real code. The experience could remind you of escape room puzzles, delivering bite-sized “aha” moments. The information you need can often be extracted from your immediate environment, but it can also be encoded in documents acquired in a different location. The game delivers this material through a wide array of channels, such as letters, journals, movie posters, or even bug reports. There’s a part of the menu which keeps track of everything relevant and that you can browse at any time, similar to a point-and-click inventory. It is best used in tandem with your own memory and a pen and paper at hand. Solving the puzzles will grant you keys or information which can unlock new parts of the hotel. This will also help you learn more about the characters, slowly untangling their threads like in a detective story. Progress is designed to be non-linear, so if a riddle gives you trouble, there’s a high chance you can ignore it for a while and follow another lead instead. However, it all converges towards a single ending which eventually requires near-full completion of the puzzles. The game is packed with many quality-of-life features: several maps, a progress percentage, a list of objectives updated in real time, and (befitting the venue) shortcut passageways making navigation in the hotel easier. However, there’s no hint system, and multiple puzzles are randomized in such a way that you won’t find direct answers from online walkthroughs. Controls may also feel somewhat unwieldy, since there’s a single action button aside from directional inputs. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes’ narrative is complex, fragmented and time-blurred, its story dabbling in esotericism. With stylish visuals and mesmerizing sound design, the game’s dark atmosphere calls back to surreal arthouse films. The silent main character herself has agreed to take part in an obscure art project, and some sections include strong nods to video game history. The jumpscares are close to none, but the imagery gets unsettling at times, with depictions of [spoiler]blood, death and trauma.[/spoiler]

If you like puzzle games that arent too handhold-y this might be for you.

creators resurrected art for a moment

Now I’m thinking to play LoreleiAndTheLaserEyes-like games ..

More like Lorelei and the cool math games

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