Recursive Ruin

If I am being 100 percent honest with you Recursive Ruin is a game that I am not sure I have the talent to be able to do justice in this little review I have going on here today! This is a truly unique and deep puzzle game that not only has some fantastic mind-bending puzzle mechanics for you to wrap your head around. This game also has a very personal and deep story that is going to get its hooks into you and really make you think. Do not be surprised if you have some kind of existential crisis yourself after playing this!

Finding Your Muse And Coming To Terms With Grief!

There are so many complex elements at play in the story Recursive Ruin is trying to get across. It takes place in a fractured kind of land which is a great metaphor for the way our artistic “hero” is feeling right now. Coming to terms with grief as well as struggling to find his muse and embrace his creative side. The story told here is something that just well and truly clicked for me, but at the same time, I do think the story might be something that people either really love or have a hard time getting into. I love games like this and last year's Maquette that tell deep and very “human” stories which play on your emotions.

Fighting The Ichor

One thing I forgot to mention about the story in Recursive Ruin is the entity that is known as the Ichor and this is what you are up against with the various puzzles you will have to solve. I read the term “kaleidoscope” a few times when reading about this game before it was released and I never got it. However, after a few minutes and after I had figured out the first few puzzles, I could easily see why the game was being described in that way. These puzzles really make you think outside the box as you try to figure out what goes where what does what and where you need to be at any given time. It is the kind of thing that is very hard to put down into words, you just have to play it for yourself to realize its brilliance.

The Mirror Dimensions

Visually, Recursive Ruin is an amazing looking game. I use the term the “mirror dimension” because when playing the game, the way this strange world looks made me think of Spider-Man: No Way Home when Doctor Strange takes Peter to the mirror dimensions. Things here look very strange, but there is something familiar about it all, add to this a strange cat called, Behemoth that talks to you and tries to get you to open up and you have a game that is very, very interesting in the presentation department.

Pros:

• The story being told here is amazing and had me gripped
• I love the weird way that this game looks
• It plays on your real insecurities in some interesting ways
• The actual puzzle gameplay is not just challenging, it is also a lot of fun

Cons:

• Puzzle games like these are not always for everyone
• The story may be a tad too weird and deep for some people