Nintendo Switch Critic Reviews

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes can sometimes feel like the Dark Souls of puzzle games, but no one will regret challenging themselves to solve its many mysteries. Players who enjoy analyzing complex stories will have a blast taking apart the many layers to Lorelei and the Laser Eye's bizarre tale, while those looking for an addicting puzzle game will find it to be an incredibly satisfying adventure. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a must-play puzzle game and one of the genre's best.

You should just play Lorelei and the Laser Eyes instead of reading about it. I’ve never seen a game quite like it, and I can’t imagine I’ll see anything like it again anytime soon. It ticks all the boxes for a puzzle game that is just as intelligently and thoughtfully designed as it is atmospheric and fascinating, and I can’t recommend it enough.

It would be an immense understatement to say Simogo have made the five-year wait for their follow-up release worth it. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes defies not just genre conventions, but that of tone, aesthetic and even presentation to craft a game of wild imagination and even wilder a delivery. Yet for all its leisurely skirting the boundaries between one perceived tone or form of presentation to the next, none of what is experienced amid the Hotel Letztes Jahr feels distracting or otherwise ill-fitting. Be it at its most satirical, surreal, strange, and on some occasions, psychologically unsettling. A masterfully-orchestrated series of puzzles that are both stand-alone and interconnected alike, a brilliant use of a more-restricted color palette emboldening its art-style and aesthetic. And best of all: one of the most curious, perplexing but ultimately satisfying mysteries to see fully unraveled and revealed in its truest form. Combined, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes stands as Simogo's best work to date. Even with a portfolio as creative as theirs, a release deserving of that most lofty of titles: magnum opus.

Even if its dream is often a nightmare, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is one of the most compelling games I’ve played in years. As a puzzle game, it’s already a triumph, but the meditations on art and bold aesthetic choices elevate it to the level of a magnum opus as grand as the artwork at the heart of its story.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a riveting puzzle game, which uses its eerie visuals and elusive story as an intrinsic element of the experience rather than a mere design affectation. It is a game that asks subtle questions about the nature of creativity and play, and later it takes a breathtakingly meta turn that will thrill those who remember Kojima’s tricks in the Metal Gear Solid series. It is also a meditation on the troubled relationship between art and commerce, and quite frankly, there could not be a more timely concern for a video game to explore.

I don’t know how Simogo keeps doing it, but Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, like every other game I’ve played from the studio, gets my highest possible recommendation. It is one of the best games I’ve ever played on Switch and Steam Deck. If you have the smallest interest in unique experiences and like puzzle games, buy Lorelei and the Laser Eyes and grab a notebook. You will not regret it.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is nothing short of a triumph for the puzzle games genre. Its excellent and challenging puzzle design is perfectly complemented by a beautifully minimalistic aesthetic, creating a total package that fans of the genre simply should not miss for any reason.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is magnificently crafted, oozing with detail, love, and care. What it does amazingly is give you all the tools you need to figure out this mystery within the hotel.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes has me questioning everything about its reality, even after finishing it. It had me solving murder mysteries. It had me playing memory games with ghosts. And it had me burning to track down the final truth in the center of the maze. The journey through its many paths included rewarding puzzles, thrilling points of no return, and a story that looks fascinatingly in on itself. The prize at this maze’s center is well-worth claiming.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes from developer Simogo and publisher Annapurna Interactive is a strange and wonderous new direction for Simogo’s post-Sayonara Wild Hearts success. It’s a beautiful mixture of thick narrative and difficult puzzles that ask a lot of the player but deliver an equal amount by the end. Some players may get frustrated by the beginning of the game as it gives you little direction on what you should be doing, but once they’re on the progression rails, the game rolls and gets better.