A great puzzle game with a very discouraging first 2 hours. At first you'll say, "Surely the entire game won't be solving mazes?" And it is. But 4 things happen along the way (no spoilers):

1) There's dozens of rules for how the mazes work that you'll need to teach yourself, unlearn, relearn, and combine.

2) Some mazes make physical changes to platforms that you need to navigate and the multiple solutions to a maze is how you select the position.

3) The mazes get REALLY hard. Like, "10 minutes of poking at it, take a break and sleep on it, graph it, run around the map staring at it from different angles for 5 minutes, go do some other puzzles, come back, AH HA, poke at it for 10 minutes, solved!" hard.

4) There are puzzles absolutely everywhere that you can't see until you know what you're looking for. And then you get paranoid seeing bits and pieces of them, trying to make your hallucinations connect together into a complete puzzle.

Through all this the game becomes pretty excellent and is constantly surprising when you least expect it. The major puzzle areas are pretty open to tackle in any order. The island itself looks great and there's some amazing visual surprises that are fun to discover. Everywhere you look you have to wonder if you're seeing all the hidden layers.

There's hidden recordings and videos of real deep quotes/essays. Some are interesting and some are sort of philosophically embarrassing. This is the weakest part of the game for me, but they can be ignored entirely. I think they're just things that Blow finds inspiring and that's fine. I feel like I have my own interpretation of what the game is saying, but don't believe there's a plot or story to be uncovered. It's just a self contained exhibit to interactive art. The ending has a tiny bit of meaningful closure, but I don't think it works as a climax or reward. The whole final section is intersting, but a little obnoxious with how it indroduces difficulty.

It played it a little at a time over many months and love many parts of it. It's got some of the most mind blowing and beautiful things I've ever seen in a game. It has literally made me say, "OH ♥♥♥♥, I JUST GOT WITNESSED," several times. But its for a very niche audience of people who will have the patience for the puzzles and revelations. But it has its flaws: slow start, meandering VO, meh ending. I recommend it. If you gave up on it early I recommend you go back to it occasionally to see if it clicks. If you love classic puzzle games like Sudoku and Picross, this is once of the most insanely polished package of puzzles you'll ever see. If you hate those kinds of puzzles, stay away.

Thanks Mr. Blow for pouring your life into this game! The craft and dedication shows, and there's nothing else like it.

A great puzzle game with a very discouraging first 2 hours. At first you'll say, "Surely the entire game won't be solving mazes?" And it is. But 4 things happen along the way (no spoilers): 1) There's dozens of rules for how the mazes work that you'll need to teach yourself, unlearn, relearn, and combine. 2) Some mazes make physical changes to platforms that you need to navigate and the multiple solutions to a maze is how you select the position. 3) The mazes get REALLY hard. Like, "10 minutes of poking at it, take a break and sleep on it, graph it, run around the map staring at it from different angles for 5 minutes, go do some other puzzles, come back, AH HA, poke at it for 10 minutes, solved!" hard. 4) There are puzzles absolutely everywhere that you can't see until you know what you're looking for. And then you get paranoid seeing bits and pieces of them, trying to make your hallucinations connect together into a complete puzzle. Through all this the game becomes pretty excellent and is constantly surprising when you least expect it. The major puzzle areas are pretty open to tackle in any order. The island itself looks great and there's some amazing visual surprises that are fun to discover. Everywhere you look you have to wonder if you're seeing all the hidden layers. There's hidden recordings and videos of real deep quotes/essays. Some are interesting and some are sort of philosophically embarrassing. This is the weakest part of the game for me, but they can be ignored entirely. I think they're just things that Blow finds inspiring and that's fine. I feel like I have my own interpretation of what the game is saying, but don't believe there's a plot or story to be uncovered. It's just a self contained exhibit to interactive art. The ending has a tiny bit of meaningful closure, but I don't think it works as a climax or reward. The whole final section is intersting, but a little obnoxious with how it indroduces difficulty. It played it a little at a time over many months and love many parts of it. It's got some of the most mind blowing and beautiful things I've ever seen in a game. It has literally made me say, "OH SHIT, I JUST GOT WITNESSED," several times. But its for a very niche audience of people who will have the patience for the puzzles and revelations. But it has its flaws: slow start, meandering VO, meh ending. I recommend it. If you gave up on it early I recommend you go back to it occasionally to see if it clicks. If you love classic puzzle games like Sudoku and Picross, this is once of the most insanely polished package of puzzles you'll ever see. If you hate those kinds of puzzles, stay away. Thanks Mr. Blow for pouring your life into this game! The craft and dedication shows, and there's nothing else like it.