4.5/5 ★ – AaronElWhite's review of Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.

What. A. Trip. The puzzles of this game gave me such a combination of challenge and utter satisfaction. They consumed my thoughts for several days as I worked through the game's mysterious story, accumulating ten pages of paper notes as I worked things out and losing sleep as my brain danced around possible solutions I had yet to find. I tried very hard to answer everything on my own and only defaulted to hints occasionally. The developer's choice to provide most information through random assignment, meaning that players would have the same collection of questions and answers to work with but the pairings and order in which they might come upon these things would be different, was a brilliant way to avoid gamers too easily just pulling up a guide and inputting the right details without having to put any effort. I could feel my brain stretching and getting more accustomed to the puzzles as the difficulty rose, and every time I was able to piece things together and find the truth it gave me a rush of pride like I've rarely felt in gaming. (Conversely, the puzzle boxes and the final Supercomputer tasks, while intentionally extra hard, sent me into rage a time to three, as well.) The unique striking art style and perfectly backed soundtrack made it a joy to spend time in the Hotel. No combat was the right choice for this narrative-driven puzzle adventure. It's all about vibes, and the vibes are amazing. As for the story, it's quite interesting at times, though by the end I have to admit it becomes far too surrealistic for my personal taste. Its more grounded parts, I really enjoyed, though, and overall it still served its purpose well to propel me in wanting to learn the secrets of this place and the lives of the characters we're introduced to along the journey. Simogo continues to make incredible games, and is not constrained by genre in the way that so many developers in the AAA space are. This is a prime example of what can come out of a talented indie team cooking up whatever they can dream of without worrying about marketability. In the end, they created a damn near masterpiece.