This game is one part zen-like calm and tranquility and one part rage-inducing difficulty.

Honestly it's pretty damn good overall, the game is frankly beautiful and the world you get to explore is a selling point all on it's own, the way the puzzles are actually built into the world almost invisibly is sometimes astonishingly well done.

Another thing the game does nicely is teach you its mechanics. The basics are so simple you almost don't even notice that it's teaching you pretty much everything you need to know in the first few seconds. The problems start however when the game opens up and just lets you loose on the island as you can now explore in whatever order you want. This poses a bit of an issue because it's possible to find puzzles that you haven't learned how to solve yet. It's not a massive issue on it's own because you can just leave and come back later when you have found out what to do but it can be a bit frustrating after walking around for ages only to find yourself unable to proceed.

However, the big issue is that sometimes the game expects you to make a leap of logic that is just far, far to much to be deemed reasonable. Like deliberately breaking the rules it sets up halfway through the final puzzle in an area without warning, I won't spoil which particular puzzle I'm talking about but that unfortunately was one of the few areas I had to look up a walkthrough for.

I was actually able to complete nearly the entire game without resorting to guides, which I think is a hallmark of good puzzle game design and this game has probably given me more of those brilliant "Ahhh so that's how it works!" moments than any other game I've ever played. For that reason I'd definitely recommend it.

This game is one part zen-like calm and tranquility and one part rage-inducing difficulty. Honestly it's pretty damn good overall, the game is frankly beautiful and the world you get to explore is a selling point all on it's own, the way the puzzles are actually built into the world almost invisibly is sometimes [i]astonishingly[/i] well done. Another thing the game does nicely is teach you its mechanics. The basics are so simple you almost don't even notice that it's teaching you pretty much everything you need to know in the first few seconds. The problems start however when the game opens up and just lets you loose on the island as you can now explore in whatever order you want. This poses a bit of an issue because it's possible to find puzzles that you haven't learned how to solve yet. It's not a massive issue on it's own because you can just leave and come back later when you have found out what to do but it can be a bit frustrating after walking around for ages only to find yourself unable to proceed. However, the big issue is that [i]sometimes[/i] the game expects you to make a leap of logic that is just far, far to much to be deemed reasonable. Like deliberately breaking the rules it sets up halfway through the final puzzle in an area without warning, I won't spoil which particular puzzle I'm talking about but that unfortunately was one of the few areas I [b]had[/b] to look up a walkthrough for. I was actually able to complete nearly the entire game without resorting to guides, which I think is a hallmark of good puzzle game design and this game has probably given me more of those brilliant "Ahhh so that's how it works!" moments than any other game I've ever played. For that reason I'd definitely recommend it.