Recursive Ruin Reviews

Good little puzzle game and art experience.

Easy to forgive for its many faults thanks to the visuals.

Bit Rot? More like Brain Rot. This is an incredibly conceited piece of trash. A story of utter nonsense, full of pointless and contrived technobabble to drag out a meandering and powerfully dull, overdone story of the tortured artist trope. Visually, it can be quite pretty at times. There are some cool moments. But as far as the game goes, that's it. The puzzles themselves aren't especially challenging, but that's okay once you realise that this isn't a puzzle-game, but some wanky art "experience". The inclusion of random new mechanics without introduction is only one part of the poor design, with the number of places you can soft-lock yourself being the second - a testament to the quality of the playtesting. Once the credits hit, you spot that all the main components of the game were made by the same family members, and the way this game unfolds and plays absolutely reeks of not being harsh enough on each other. Nobody needs to play this, but if you must, get it on offer. The base price isn't worth the endless inane drivel from the cardboard characters in what can only be described as a drug-addled fever dream of a game.

The most visually incredible game on Steam, and a satisfying and unique puzzle game.

In some ways, this is a hidden gem, and I think it deserves better ratings than it gets. I absolutely LOVE the visuals -- all the fractals and psychedelic surrealism, pulsating liquids and phantom geometries that bend impossibly beneath your feet as you walk -- it's all very trippy and fun to look at. If you're the kind of person who can appreciate that sort of thing, this game is worth picking up just for that alone. LOTS of eye-candy. The puzzles are pretty good too! They're not super hard, but do require a lot of lateral thinking. Several of the levels are really clever! I see a lot of negative comments about the dark story. It's true that the story is hard to take, but that's kinda the point. It's like, no matter how bad it gets, it can always get worse. Recursively. It's a descent into madness. It also feels like a deeply personal metaphoric self-expression, like the developers were sorta working out some of their own inner demons. I can respect that as an artistic choice. My biggest complaint is that several levels are basically a long walking simulator, and your "sprinting" speed feels like a slow walk. Other than that, I really enjoyed this game.