Summary
- Blue Prince is one of the most innovative and satisfying puzzle games in years with its roguelite progression and deckbuilding mechanics.
- Players unfold multiple layers of mysteries across runs with an impressive reward system.
- Earned positive high ratings from several critics, taking place along puzzle game classics like The Witness, Portal, and Myst.
Released on April 10, Blue Prince emerged as one of the most talked-about puzzle games this year. Indie studio Dogubomb introduced this first-person puzzle adventure mixed with roguelites, deckbuilders and strategy game elements. Here’s a full Blue Prince game review to see whether it’s worth investing your time to.
A Mansion of Shifting Possibilities
Delve into the mysterious mansion as you play the role of an heir to a strange relative. However, claiming your inheritance won’t be an easy path. You’ll have to find and enter the hidden 46th room first before they give your claims. But what makes Blue Prince interesting?
Well, you have to build the mansion as you explore the area. So each time you open a door, a pop-up prompt will appear. It’ll give you three room options to “draft” from where it’ll gradually fill out the 9×5 gird floor plan.
The drafting mechanic essentially serves as the core of the Blue Prince gameplay. Players start each day with 50 steps, spending one each time as they pass through a doorway. It creates a unique strategic layer where players have to think carefully about their route through the house. Plus, they have to prioritize rooms based on their unique attributes and their connection with other rooms.
There are rooms where players can get access to valuable resources including coins, gems, and keys. On the other hand, some rooms offer special functions or items that can give you significant advantages in the game.
Puzzles Within Puzzles
More than a resource management game, Blue Prince stands out for its intricate puzzle design. They fill the mansion with mysteries that unfold as they go through multiple runs. The rooms are connected despite appearing separately in the beginning. Most players suggest a paper and pen approach while playing the game.
It’ll be helpful to fill the pages with notes, diagrams, codes, and clues which will help you in the latter part of the game. Also, this game provides a variety of challenging puzzles that you can encounter in the entire mansion. Your notes will matter as there are times when a code discovered on the third day only becomes useful on the eleventh day.
Sometimes, some portraits will matter after recalling something from several runs ago. These clues help connect the rooms and cross the gap in its storyline. It’ll be satisfying once you complete the entire gameplay.
Roguelite With Purpose
One of the highlights this Blue Prince game review noticed was the roguelite elements in the game. This inclusion gives another dimension to the typical first-person puzzle game experience. The mechanics include daily resets of the mansion which causes you to start again with a clean slate. Despite missing the items, your knowledge carries over in the game.
So this upgrades the challenge and difficulty of the game while avoiding holding back players from progressing. Furthermore, Blue Prince offers ways to make permanent changes in the mansion despite its ever-shifting environment. This evades the resets and improves your character’s starting conditions. Also, it can influence the room types that will appear frequently in your future draft options.
A Story That Unfolds With Patience
The layers of mysteries reveal a promising storyline beneath the simple premise of Blue Prince. It allows us to uncover fragments of history about the character’s family as the player explores the mansion. The house itself and the world around it speak about the intricate stories in the gameplay. The narratives alone add up to the gameplay depth that many players have been looking for.
Moreover, the game’s story also ties perfectly into your actions which impresses the community. Players get to discover the parallels between the family history and their journey in the game itself. From simply moving puzzles, the storyline leads to an in-depth understanding of the reasons for your inheritance.
Perfect Balance of Randomness and Design
The randomness can be annoying in some games as it leads nowhere to progress into the game. The same applies to Blue Prince in which some players feel frustrated upon seeing the dead ends. Yet, it balances with the deliberate design of rooms which gives a twist to the gameplay. Even a “failed” run in Blue Prince will still allow you to discover new details or clues to help in the game.
Conclusion
So far, that’s everything you have to know in this Blue Prince game review. Certainly, this game surprised many by tying the simple puzzle experience into intricate layers of mystery and decoding. It had players engaging in constant brainwork by familiarizing and taking notes of the route and such. It’ll be worth playing for those who like these types of gameplay.
