My feelings about this game are split. On one hand, the gameplay is incredibly unique, and the game provides an interesting take on non-Euclidean geometry. On the other hand, this may be the most confusing game I have ever played. If Steam had an option between thumbs-up and thumbs-down, that would be what I choose for this game.

If you are debating purchasing this game but lack the time/interest to read my entire review, scroll to the last paragraph.


Recursive Ruin is a game where the player can shift around an infinitely recursive world. What that means is that each area is contained within itself (like a chain of mirrors) and the player can decide to change where or how the area sits within itself. This concept is difficult to grasp at first but gets easier with time. This leads to an incredibly unique thinking-outside-the-box style of puzzles that are easily some of the coolest I have ever seen. The art style is strangely fitting for an infinitely recursive world and enhances the experience of wandering around these areas.

The story, which has many problems I will cover later, packs a hefty and emotional punch. The heavy themes of depression and loneliness combined with the fact that the levels repeat infinitely make the game feel almost claustrophobic despite the infinitely open nature of the level design. The game also dips its toes into themes of psychological horror here and there.

Put everything together and you get a unique and interesting puzzle game that would be a healthy addition to any gamer's library, that is if it were not for...


First: the game is not optimized properly. During some of the more open levels, the game consistently dropped frames. My PC is not a potato, this game should be able to run smoothly on every level, but it is unable to on those open levels. This does not make the game unplayable, but it is a little less playable on those levels.

Second: the game is too short. I would be okay with a game like this having at least five hours of puzzle-solving gameplay to it, but this game simply does not. I would say this game consists of about 40-50% puzzle gameplay with the rest being dedicated to the story. If the game were eight hours long, this would not be much of an issue, but the game is only about 4-5 hours long. The length would also not be an issue if the story were worthwhile, but that brings me to...

Third: the narrative is extremely confusing. I still have no idea how to feel about the story of this game. None of it seemed to make any sense. The levels where you are wandering around your small apartment, despite being extremely dull, are the only parts of the story that connect with one another. The rest of the narrative seems completely random and meaningless. Characters are introduced during infinite levels, and none of them are at all memorable. None of them seem to have any purpose, and they refrain from telling the player what the purpose of the game is or what they are doing outside of overly verbose hints. There are some references to ichor consuming the world, but none of that is ever fleshed out fully, and none of the characters seem to have any purpose or discernible intent.

The story wraps up with so many loose ends, which combined with the fact that nothing I did seemed to have an impact on the characters made me feel like everything I did was utterly pointless. Some of the levels (specifically the fifth and eleventh) hold absolutely no bearing on the rest of the story and serve only as cryptic metaphors. Throughout the game, there are flashbacks that show you memories of the character you play as, and those are partially interesting, but they feel completely irrelevant by the end, since none of them connect to the story within the infinite levels and have little relevance to what your character does during the apartment levels.


This game feels like a fever dream. The incredible visuals and puzzles combined with the wildly confusing haphazard story and the mild psychological horror themes drive that point home quite excessively. I think this game would benefit from the story being entirely removed. If this game had no story and was exclusively about solving these kaleidoscopic puzzles, then there would be far less filler, there would be no desire for the game to make sense, and the intrigue that a lack of a narrative creates does wonders for this style of game.

Throughout my experience playing this game, I consistently compared it to other non-Euclidean puzzle games. Specifically, I kept coming back to the comparison of this game to Manifold Garden. Both are games where infinite recursion is a main theme, but Manifold Garden succeeds where this game fails: the lack of narrative. There are exactly zero words spoken to the player in Manifold Garden and yet the atmosphere and intrigue of that game is much stronger than this one.


I would be lying if I said I did not enjoy this game. In fact, I would recommend this game in a heartbeat if it had no story. If you are like me and you have enjoyed many similar non-Euclidean puzzle games (specifically the ones mentioned below) or if you are a sucker for abstract artsy stories, then I wholeheartedly recommend this game to you. It may not be worth $15, but if you can pick the game up on sale, then I say go for it. If you are just looking for a neat space-bending puzzle game then your time and money would be better spent on Antichamber, COCOON, Manifold Garden, Patrick's Parabox, or Viewfinder.

My Glitchwave review: https://glitchwave.com/game/recursive-ruin/review/Zassafras/89187579/