It’s fair to say at this point that Annapurna Interactive has a great eye for a good game. A laser eye, if you will.
The odd stumble aside – Twelve Minutes was a bit rubbish and the likes of Last Stop and Open Roads were perfectly fine but not quite masterpieces – for the most part Annapurna has an outstanding track record of creating publishing deals for some of the most fantastic indie games out there.
One of those fantastic games was the music-based Sayonara Wild Hearts, developed by Simogo and released in 2019. Following its critical success, Annapurna announced a multi-year deal to publish future Simogo games. Almost half a decade later, the next game – Lorelei and the Laser Eyes – is here, and the wait was well worth it.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is one of those annoying reviews where it’s hard to say too much because ignorance is bliss. This is a game where you’ll get the most out of it by knowing as little as possible, as it’s all about trying to figure out what’s going on and piece together the plot.
All we will say is that you start in a field standing next to a car and your first task is to get to the nearby hotel where the story begins. Everything else is up to you to figure out, but be warned that you need to be a very specific type of player to get the most out of this game.
If you like the puzzle-solving elements of survival horror games like Resident Evil, this game is very much for you. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is basically an early Resident Evil game with the zombies removed and a lot more puzzles added. Virtually everywhere you go there is some kind of puzzle to solve or code to crack.
As soon as you arrive at the hotel, you quickly discover that it is full of locks. Almost every door is locked, there are locked containers around that hold important documents, and generally it gets to the point where when you get close to something and it just opens without any remorse, it’s a real surprise. This means that the game is played at a rather slow pace. The initial goal here is to walk around the building, study all the items lying around and collect clues that can help you start unlocking some of those doors to open the place up a bit.
Most importantly, most of these puzzles are designed in such a way that they have logical solutions, which means that you will rarely get annoyed. When you’ve been confused for a long time and you finally find the solution, it’s less of a “How could I have thought of that?” and more of a “I can’t believe I didn’t think of that sooner.” When you get a hunch and decide to try something and see the lock open, the level of satisfaction because you figured it out yourself is off the charts.
And here’s the thing – you absolutely have to figure it out for yourself. For the most part, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes doesn’t try to give you any additional hints beyond the clues you need to find as you explore the building. There is no signpost leading to your next objective, no optional prompt telling you what to do next. You are in the hotel and use what is around you to find the solution.
It’s a stubborn old-school mentality, but it really works here. The sheer number of puzzles to solve can be more than a little overwhelming at times, but it’s designed to be that way. You’re supposed to be completely confused and feel like you have no idea what to do next, because it’s even more rewarding when you figure out the code to the next door or which item to use next in a certain location.
Unless you’ve managed to avoid the screenshots on this page, it should also go without saying that Lorelei and the Laser Eyes’ art style is beautifully striking. But we’re going to say it anyway because that’s the point of the review. Old movies play a role in the plot to some extent, and here the developers have made a similar stylistic choice.
Most of the game is played in black and white, with the occasional object or face being shown in color for added effect. When players interact with an item and the game gives them a message (such as a locked door or what have you), that message is presented as a separate, full-screen caption, in the style of a silent movie. Considering the game’s generally slow pace, this isn’t as tedious as it sounds.
Simogo has always specialized in games with a unique and eye-catching aesthetic, and this is a prime example. In much the same way that Sayonara Wild Hearts benefited greatly from its minimalist visuals, we dare say that Lorelei would be less compelling if it lost all of its style and was presented as a realistic adventure.
It’s fascinating though, and as long as you’re comfortable with the idea of being placed in a building full of puzzles to break and slowly working your way through them all – the game even creates a checklist for you to know which doors, containers and more problems you have yet to solve – this is a game that will keep you captivated for almost the entire duration.
We say “almost” because some sections failed to nail the landing for us. Sometimes you’ll use an archaic computer to access a series of first-person exploration sections, similar to dungeon crawling. They look wonderfully lo-fi and are initially a nice change of pace, but perhaps wear out their welcome and aren’t as engaging as the building exploration.
It also bears repeating that this is not a game that is ready to give you a helping hand when you get lost. It insists on the old belief that you have all the tools to figure things out for yourself, and while players who grew up on the likes of The 7th Guest won’t have a problem with it, those with more modern sensibilities may find themselves overwhelmed. After all, this is a game that, upon first loading, advises you to grab a physical notebook and play with it nearby.
You will fall in love with Lorelei’s performance and the laser eyes. You will be fascinated by its mysterious history. You will get stuck, a lot. You will have to stop, think, read all the documents you find along the way, and think carefully about what to do next. You’ll need to write things down and try out possible solutions with the understanding that they might not work, but when they do do work, the realization is even sweeter.
If that sounds like too much work for you, then it might just not be your type of game, as fantastic as it looks. For those looking for an atmospheric adventure that refuses to hold your hand, however, we thoroughly recommend this.
