Somewhere in Kitrinos there is a decent-enough Mystlike hollering to get out, but I am having a very difficult time finding it due to the developers seeming to have deliberately made the game *as unpleasant to play as possible*.

Supposedly it was released in 2018, but the graphical quality appears to be about 20 years earlier. I am not the sort of person to get all up in arms about how many polygons a rock has, but when I can't determine what objects in the game *are* because of their oversimplified geometric structure, that's a problem. There is this horrible "old filmstrip" filter constantly running over everything which straight-up hurts my eyes to look at too long (it appears to be absent in the Steam page screenshots), and moving elements like puzzles do so at a low, jerky framerate. The original Myst was more fluid and lifelike than this decades before.

The game also fails to incorporate modern innovations to the Mystlike formula such as free movement and the ability to highlight clickables. The only change from the most basic, original clickable-slideshow model is that you can turn 360 degrees to see what is essentially a cylindrical image. However, the turning speed is slow and you only turn when the cursor is very close to the edge of the screen, making turning around or even just *looking* around a chore. The game at least has small HUD elements over areas you can click on to advance to the next slide; without them, it would not be possible to figure out where to go a good portion of the time. The first area is particularly bad about this- the geometry is very abstract and there aren't really recognizable paths, and while all the areas look very similar overall there is little specific relationship between the area you just left and the one you ended up in; this makes it impossible to develop any sense of how the area is supposed to be laid out as anything other than abstract nodes with connections discovered by trial and error.

You can have a retro style *without* discarding every serious advance in the genre made since the era you are mimicking, or making mistakes that the original authors had a good enough understanding of the limits of their presentation to avoid.

I have no idea how large the game is, but of the five demo shots and one video on the Steam page, I have seen everything but a single picture in about an hour of gameplay so I think I managed to traverse most of it. If that's the case, the game likely does not have more than half a dozen puzzles in it- I've seen three, one of which was a straight-up "find the code" lock.

There is a story to it, told in splash screens that come up at certain milestones, but it's nothing to write home about.

The game is free so you'd think it'd be worth the money, at least, but a free headache is still just a headache.

This is a fine addition, and prequel, to the Black Cube series. If you enjoyed the other games, or if you haven't played them, then you should definitely give this one a go, besides it's free!

Nice old school Myst style graphics and old film style cutscenes. Great ambience and beautiful soundtrack. Fun and challenging puzzles. On my first play through (not on Steam) it took about a hour and a half to finish. Highly recommended!

I haven't played the prequill and I'm not a big puzzle guy, but the art is fantastic. Thumbs up to the creator who gave this one away for free on Steam. It is Sci-Fi Surrealism in it's presentation and ...well..puzzling in it's puzzle structure. Here is my first time playing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fisCpao0P8&feature=youtu.be

In 1961, a professor of archeology finds a hidden artifact who wants to know if people are worthy of Knowledge.

Pros:

• + Availability: the game is free
  
• + Achievements
  
• + Challenging puzzles
  
• + Great art
  
• + Nice music
  
• + To solve many problems you will need a pen and a piece of paper.
  
  Minuses:
  
• - Difficulty

Total:
Quite a difficult quest in which we have to solve many puzzles. The game seems unsightly, but hides a pretty good plot.
It is a prequel to the Black Cube series of games.
The game is recommended for the passage of lovers of riddles, mysticism and complex puzzles.

This one is a strange little gem. Kind of a mix between a Myst-like game and a weird art experience.

The first section is a little difficult to navigate, the strange visuals make it hard to understand where you are and where to go, but don't let that stop you. The following sections have a more clearly defined path.

The puzzles are few but good. They sometimes take inspirations from concepts we've seen before, but add a new spin to it that requires you to think outside the box.

Overall, I've really enjoyed my experience. It feels like a beautiful interactive piece of art, with a well written and interesting story.

The game it short, it took me around an hour to complete, but if you're into this type of game it really worth it.

I haven't played the other games in the Black Cube series yet, but I can't wait to give them a try!

Entertaining, with a little bit of challenge. Good production values considering how it was created. A small gem that is free to play. If you enjoy a Myst-like gameplay, give it a try.

Really cool game, mysterious, esoteric, for any lover of puzzles and Myst style games

https://store.steampowered.com/curator/38262110/

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This may be free, but it's not worth your time.

What initially drew me in with this game was the visuals. I kind of dug the abstract, more surreal style that the screenshots show. If that's what is also drawing you in then just stick to the screenshots, because you won't find any other interesting imagery inside. Instead you'll get a clunky, overly simplistic puzzle game that wastes more of your time than it'll take you to solve the puzzles it presents.

The puzzles are so simple that it's sometimes hard to even call them puzzles. The answers are often given to you directly, and if you do have to come up with a solution on your own then you'll figure it out pretty quickly. Not that it entirely matters because one of these puzzles (out of six if I recall correctly) doesn't even function correctly.

This puzzle is one you've probably seen before. You're trying to orient different colored objects in the correct order. You have a few buttons you can push and they each reorient a group of the objects. The trick being that you could potentially get an object in the right spot using one button, but mess it up when orienting an object with the other button. Here's the issue: I initially solved this puzzle and nothing happened. Turns out getting the objects in the right combination doesn't even matter. What does matter is that you press the buttons that move the objects in the right order; which you find in a separate room. Entering the button presses that the game gives you yields the same result I got earlier, but this time it works. I even played through a second time up until this point to double check. It just doesn't work.

Here's a video of what I mean: https://streamable.com/70lqkc

The other puzzles are mostly tedious. Somehow the everything feels slow and clunky. Puzzles often have you cycling through different states or pictures by clicking on things and every time there's some slow animation involved that makes solving the puzzle take twice as long as needed. The first puzzle has messing with a dozen objects, clicking each ten to fifteen times in a row each, and half your clicks don't register because of a small animation playing every time.

The music and visuals are fine enough, but they're not worth dealing with the dull, tediousness of the rest of the game. Maybe the story will do it for you, but I found it to be fairly contrived. This game is free and was made over a short period for a game jam, but I can tell some talented people worked on it. I'm sure given more time the devs could make something pretty cool, but I'm not into this one.

Update: Added video of problem with puzzle. Turns out the dev is I kind of a jerk and is claiming I cheated with no proof...

In Kitrinos inside the cube, you go inside the cube, then you solve puzzles inside the cube, it's like a point and click adventure puzzle game, filled with some tricky puzzles and an intriguing story
https://youtu.be/ImFjcmEfykY