Blue Prince Review: Unique immersion in an ever -changing mysterious mansion
To call the blue prince a puzzle game, he fails to admit the many, many ways that his complex systems will surprise and excite players eager for secrets and minds. This is one of the most unique puzzle games for years, and although its tricks and mechanical obstacles can transfer you, the blue prince is a master class in the design for those who are eager to get lost in a mysterious, clock.
Blue Prince is an indie game of developer Dogubomb on April 10th. The players take on the role of Simon, the young grandson of a recently departed eccentric nobleman who left behind 45 rooms-and the promise of a great prize if you can find an elusive 46th room. With the change of layout daily demand is anything but easy, but every passing through the property reveals new secrets.
The game itself is a first-person adventure that unfolds with your tempo, which was previously called a “walking simulator”-with an art style that looks painted in a wide pencil and bright watercolors, giving every room a dynamic look and distinct personality. The minimalist soundtrack adds a layer of cozy mystery to your study, while different sound effects for collecting and using elements bring a sense of tact to the otherwise empty mansion – where nothing moves unless you do it.
The entrance hall, the first thing players see when the game starts – and at the beginning of every day after.
There are elements of old games – a household exploration in the remains of Edith Finch, puzzles like in the witness – but the blue prince is a unique experience, the novelty that develops over time. Players start from the bottom of the mansion in the hall and have to make their way to the top, among which are empty spaces to place rooms. Much of the game involves walking to the door and placing one of the dozens of pre -rooms, each with its own layout and purpose – bedrooms, gardens, corridors, training rooms, security stations and more.
Each door presents to the players three new variants of the room, ranging from rare and based on their progress through the mansion. Thanks to this variety, the vertical grille of the mansion – five rooms with a height of nine rooms – looks completely different every day. As the rooms also have a different number of doors, players should carefully weigh their choice between progress to their goals and avoid potential dead end.
Three choices expect players at any time when they open the door, although their options can be shifted depending on several factors.
During my first few days, I quickly learned how easy it was to run out and finish running earlier. After eight hours of disclosure of the secrets of the house, I decided that I was approaching the final game – but there was a lot more ahead. The Blue Prince has the ability to reveal new layers of functionality with every daily reset of the mansion. Even when the paths hit my dead limbs, a newly discovered room, or a constantly unlocked grace continues to pull me into another running.
As I learned how different rooms work, I settled into rhythm – and so I made my strategy. I would choose the wardrobe early to get a special item or one of the few disposable currencies (gold, keys, gems to unlock unique rooms). Or I would go for the billiard room to allow a puzzle and win a prize as one of the rare keys that unlock the most volatile mansion cameras. The great mysteries began to fall into place and I was aloud – the only company in this strange mansion and the only one I could trust in the background of her secrets and shadows.
The billiard room, one of the earliest rooms, contains a puzzle (not pictured) that rewards players with articles if they can solve it.
There is a coincidence with every daily running that is equally exciting and uncertain. It also distinguishes Blue Prince, in addition to puzzle games like last year’s excellent Loreley and laser eyes, which have an established and unchanged brain teaser model to solve (you can find online guides to translate you through every part of these games). But the new daily layout of Blue Prince remixed gameplay, so even after the drivers come out because of their handful of puzzles, players will still have to become healthy with the mansion mechanics to win the game.
This unpredictability can lead to a disappointing sharp edges within days due to the unfortunate withdrawal of room options or the reduction of keys or precious stones. This is at the top of the typical friction found in “Rogue-like” run-based games, such as early elections, more intelligently doomed progress later. But the room layout rolls are so deeply rooted in the design and theme of the game that it will not be the blue prince without it – as a function, not a mistake, to build a strategy around. After getting out of premature tracks, I had to transfer my perspective to evaluate small victories, even if I got to a new room in a day.
And then is the story that is slowly unfolding with every room you find – if you know where to look.
A mountain range extends beyond the ledge in front of the mansion, located in a royal city with its own tidy history revealed through the books of the mansion.
The Blue Prince’s story: a shift mansion, a destroyed family
The game opens with the player as a young Simon, in the hall with a letter from his dear grandfather Herbert S. Sinkler, welcoming him to find the secrets of the mansion. But in the course of the game it becomes clear that he has more than a cheerful, Fay grand person he presents – and more about the strange events around the family, of which Simon is one of the last remaining members.
As the developer Dogubomb recommended, I started making notes in a physical guide (why not?), As well as a spreadsheet for scandal more puzzles. I entered everything that seemed interesting to me, as each new room adds some letter, document, reference or mention of different characters. Persons of drama appeared and their fates: Simon’s mother’s disappearance, the anger of Simon’s father, the mischief of the employees of the House. The scattered clues remain as a detective who checks a book from the library of the house or a teacher looking for an old textbook. They must mean thingS
The salon room in an early game has a logical puzzle that is generated at random every day.
It is not clear how many of these little notes I accept are important for a comprehensive history – I will freely admit that I have not completed it in the blue prince. I am close, but the mechanical difficulties and the lack of luck in aligning the estate rooms exactly maintained me, I hope only a good running from the end (or close enough to it). In the meantime, I still assemble the erudition of the house, jumping to unlock new rooms in the hope of revealing a little more about what happened to this ever -poured home, now just a shadow of myself.
But even if I have not finished the game, it is still a joy to wander around his halls and wonder how more secrets are lurking inside. Each new room offers a fragment of storytelling – a family tomb, a shelter for dropping – and the further it unfolds, the more layers develop (as a puzzle that covers the whole mansion that makes me wonder what I miss in the eyes).
The blue prince is not for everyone. While most puzzles can be solved with anything in the room, there are some complex solutions that can avoid random players. The modified layout of the mansion and unpredictable choices of rooms can make progress uneven – or even stop it if luck is not on your side. But this is one of the most unique games I have played for years and a real treat for puzzles and fans of mystery.
Blue Prince is released on April 10 on the PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox Game Pass and PC.
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