Little Orpheus

The game itself is probably one of the EASIEST ones I have ever played. It can easily be played with just one hand and you can go through it without ever dying. That actually makes it less enjoyable as it poses no challenge at all. However, the best part of the game is the background narration where you (as Cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich Privalov) are being debriefed by General Yorkovol after being on a three-year mission to the center of the Earth. I really enjoying the conversation between the two and that alone was enough to keep me to the end of the game.

It's important to note what Little Orpheus actually is. It is essentially an interactive, curated art exhibit. There are some jumping elements and some obstacles to deal with, but you're essentially holding the left stick to the right while running through several vistas for the majority of the runtime. You might get chased by something big or have to run away from crumbling platforms. That's over 8-9 chapters at around 30 minutes each. Barely enough to really constitute a “game” for some, which is why there's a mixed reaction in the reviews. That being said, what is here is pretty good. I like the banter between your character and the general interrogating him while everything's going on. The art design for all the levels are pretty nice, even if they were pretty samey mechanically. Music was nice. The story exists, I guess. It runs fairly well on the steam deck. Although, it made it sweat much more than I thought it would. At least, not with these graphics running at the deck’s lower resolution. Maybe it's an optimization issue or maybe it's just Unity in general. Still, it was serviceable. Full price is $13.00. If you go through it and replay levels for the collectibles, it likely will be worth full price. But with the repetitive gameplay and thankfully short runtime, it might not. I say it's still worth a try but on sale. 6-7/10. Above average to good.