Lorelei and the Laser Eyes Reviews

I played this game with my partner; we both enjoyed feverishly updating our notebooks to solve the latest mysteries. We have spent a lot of time the last few months lamenting that there are not more games like this. The hunt for more high-quality mystery games did lead us to The Case of the Golden Idol and Obra Dinn, and those are both fantastic. But Lorelei still stands on its own as an incredible game, super cool style, great way to explore and handle multiple mysteries at a time; all that I wish we'd get more of. Wish I could play it again for the first time / 10

This is a great puzzle game that does need pen and paper. I really love this game! 100% recommended.

Lorelei is a unique, engaging game, but not without flaws. The first thing that deserves attention is a beautiful artystyle that fits very well with the climate of mystery. The plot is engaging, balancing on the verge of reality and dream. I think that even if the game was not fun, I would still be interested in learning what happened in Letzes Jahr hotel. However, I wish the plot was served in a more straightforward way. The hotel's name reminds me of one additional unobvious plus: I like that the game is set in Europe. I also liked adding the elements of puzzles in in-game games which are quite climatic. To continue on the pluses: puzzles. They are quite mathematical, often requiring the player to notice something while exploring. Solving them is satisfying and engaging to the point of thinking about the puzzles while not playing the game. The puzzle system is not perfect though: Lorelei doesn't help the player at all to understand the next step. The gameplay could use some delicate hint system. Theoretically, there is one, but the tips are not useful to the extent that it seems they mock the player. Why is it an issue? Because it is not clear if you should be able to solve some puzzle with the information and access you currently have. This can lead to trying to solve puzzles unsolvable at a given point in time which causes frustration. The game is definitely not for people who do not like searching through documents and trying to find patterns. The interface makes it hard and a bit tedious. I am not sure how, but I guess it would be possible to group the documentation in a more helpful way or at least have some documents bookmarked. What doesn't help either is that the game uses the directions and only one button- you will get used to that, but it would be call if Lorelei used something as basic as cancel/return button. It might be due to my lack of patience, but Lorelei moves very slowly and the mechanics that helps with that comes very late in the game and is far from perfect. One last point: I have no idea how it is possible to solve the last piece of the supercomputer puzzle (years) without any hints. Those who have finished the game will know what I am writing about. All in all, despite the lack of proper hint system and despite quality of life issues, Lorelei is a great game.

I'm tapping out. The style is cool but it can only carry me so far. This game is majorly tedious. Most puzzles are either moon logic or baby logic with extra steps, some are just straight up arithmetic. More often than not, it's a scavenger hunt for documents telling you how to solve things, alot of slowwwly walking back and forth through the hotel to do puzzles that may or may not help progress the story. Most solutions are just different ways to input the same 3 numbers. Also not having a BACK BUTTON is crazy. Having to arrow over to the close button on every screen is a bad flow (you get used to it but still). If you just wanna look at a puzzle, you have to input an incorrect answer to back out of it. It even makes you do it for a 16 digit keycode. That doesn't add a fun challenge, just inconvenience It's a shame cause the style and story are very unique, especially the mixed media moments

Great and engaging puzzles. The main story is interesting too but it kinda lost me towards the end. Still had lots of fun solving all the riddles.

Its mysterious, artsy, and clever. Its different from most puzzle games and feels like an old fashioned resident evil without the fighting. Its not perfect however, if you're not using a controller the controls are kind of obnoxious you use a single button for everything besides walking around. The puzzles themselves are easy to apply logic to and feel good when you figure it out with only a handful so left field that i have no idea how anyone would assume to piece it together in such a way. I'm glad this was recommended to me on NADPOD its not the greatest puzzle game ive ever played but it definitely scratches the itch

Thank you "Lorelei and the Laser Eyes" for reminding me how much of a f*cking Neanderthal I am and why I choose to resolve most of my gaming dilemmas with "murder-murder-kill-kill" approach rather than using my brain.

Solid puzzles, Lynchian atmosphere and a tale that's not as rich as I was expecting

Tedious and pretentious. There are no puzzles in this game, only infinite number of code locks scattered across whole hotel. They are solved by collecting and memorizing infinite amount of garbage scattered across the same hotel. For example you have door with code lock with some movie poster next to it, but you picked up movie cassette box in the opposite part of the building 3 hours ago so the code is the movie release date. That's [b]all[/b]. The difficulty does not come from puzzle design itself but from drowning player in data and backtracking, artificial challenge of using roman numerals everywhere and intentionally difficult navigation. Discovering new hotel areas may be fun at first but when you reach [spoiler]red maze[/spoiler] and have to travel back and forth to answer tons of stupid questions like "how much do the drinks in hotel restaurant costs?" followed by another meticulous dig through pile of memorized garbage then you realize how little puzzle mechanics this game actually has to offer. At this point I discovered "48% truth". By truth game means mostly pretentious babbling about art. Prompt AI to [i]"Generate story about misunderstood, eccentric artist who wants to create his ultimate art project. Story must contain delusional artist's manifests along with [spoiler]his[/spoiler] mysterious death."[/i] and there you have it. I personally found nothing engaging in plot of this game that made me want to discover more. Does not deliver as an escape room puzzle and does not deliver as a detective story :( I personally think this game would benefit from being more cohesive and streamlined. It lacks tighter new_puzzle+new_data=story_reveal+progress loop. For example if you introduce filmography aspect have [b]relevant[/b] puzzle next to it and solving this puzzle should reveal [b]relevant[/b] mystery with indication which puzzle you can approach next. Another example is [spoiler]maze[/spoiler] - a nice idea that got completely killed by forcing player to do nonsensical runs back and forth instead of having trivia rooms inside and having trivia actually [b]relevant[/b] to the thing awaiting you in the center. Currently story, puzzles and data are mostly unrelated and smeared all over the place in very chaotic and indigestible way.

I greatly enjoyed it at first, but over time the game became obnoxious. You are only able to use one button for everything and it can be frustrating maneuvering between menus and through the mansion. There are some great puzzles and some not so great puzzles. The story was interesting at first, but it quickly becomes obvious what's going on and the game keeps acting like it's revealing something important to you. In my opinion, some of the puzzles feel like they were added just to extend the game's playtime. The atmosphere is excellent. It's like a Resident Evil game without the combat. I think I would have enjoyed this game a lot more if it was shorter.