Lorelei and the Laser Eyes review: Puzzles hold the key to a hotel of secrets

Like any properly engaging mystery, you start with practically zero information, having been inexorably drawn to an eerie hotel in the wilderness by a cryptic letter. But on your arrival, you quickly become inundated by a sea of information as this dreamlike storyline unfurls in multiple directions – entwining murder, art, maths and logic.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is the creation of Swedish studio Simogo – an indie hit machine responsible for deliciously offbeat titles such as Sayonara Wild Hearts and Device 6. But this savagely inventive slice of brain-bending brilliance can be filed under magnum opus, thanks to a clever sandwich of crafty puzzles, chilling atmosphere and polygonal art style.

The mazy layout of the hotel’s corridors and the fixed camera angles invest Lorelei’s quest with a Resident Evil vibe, the monochrome visuals occasionally splashed with a blood-red tint. It takes some time for the survival horror aesthetic to fully develop but you will be confronted by some spooky scenes and supernatural interventions as the plot thickens.

Simogo gives little away from the off, with every step of progress hard-won through sheer force of deduction, observation and intuition. The hotel is structured like a Matryoshka doll, concealing many layers and hidden rooms behind doors locked by keys, combinations, equations and wordplay.

The puzzles seem desperately intimidating at first. But every solution ties to a clue that may be staring you in the face or sits quietly in one of the copious documents you’ve already collected as you wander the rooms and floors of the building.

Your inventory usefully keeps track of all the scraps of data – maps, letters, inscriptions, encounters, etc – but the wise player will press into service an old-fashioned notebook to record hunches, perform calculations and generally gather your thoughts.

It’s that type of game – like an antediluvian point-and-click adventure in one sense and an ingenious synthesis of modern game systems in another. It reminds me somewhat of 2016’s The Witness, a puzzle-laden ramble around a sun-drenched island. But Lorelei musters more depth by tying its melancholic narrative, themes and setting to its thorny puzzles.

Simogo’s design is not without fault. The Switch version tested doesn’t account well for playing in handheld mode, with the result that significant details can be hard to parse at small sizes. The interface also cries out for a simple back button that returns you straight to the game. Many times you will dive into your inventory only to face a fiddly tree of menus to exit. As a task you perform at frequent intervals, it quickly becomes irritating.

Nonetheless, this melting pot of influences has the laser-like focus to draw your attention hour after hour. Simogo showcases its characteristic ability to wrap compellingly novel gameplay in a distinctive visual aesthetic, all the while telling a captivating story.