It is a short and a little repetitive puzzle game where both players have to communicate to each other information which they are seeing in order to proceed. It is like prologue, but more of it. Game has added replayability with its alternative underwhelming ending. It is a good puzzle co-op game to play with your friend.
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Calicifer’s reviews
Introduction
It is a slightly better version of a prologue We Were Here. Quests are little better, game is a little longer, but besides that there is not much more to it. Bugs which plagued early versions seem to be patched out as we did not encountered any problems in our three playthroughs of a game. It is good puzzle co-op game which often goes dirt cheap during sales too.
Main Issues
Outside of being competently made, cheap co-op puzzle game, there isn’t much to talk about. This game won’t wow you with its puzzles, graphics, sounds, level design or anything else. It is just here to have some fun with your friend at a low price. This is all that it is and what it needs to be. This is why I will focus in this review on several key negative things in this game.
Simplistic puzzle design
- This game has simple puzzles who rely too much on just relying the information rather than thinking together. It is just few types of puzzles in different environments. The whole game consist of these puzzles:
- First room (Match symbols + hidden symbols)
- Second room (Say the order + Say the order + Match symbols + Say the order)
- Third room (Match portraits + Tell input)
- Fourth room (Say the direction)
- Fifth room (Match symbols)
- Sixth room (Press a button)
Do you see a problem here? In this whole game there are 4 Matching puzzles, 4 Ordering puzzles and 2 trivial puzzles with next to none challenge to players. When you will be playing We Were Here and We Were Here Too games you will be essentially playing just two puzzles over and over again. While all puzzle games have to have consistency like Portal or Magus Opus, they do increase variety and complexity as time goes by. In this game complexity never goes up. Sometimes there is an arbitrary timer which never goes well in a puzzle game. Game is rather stale with its puzzle design, short in length and is not challenging. However, due to how cheap and short this game is, these issues never start becoming an issue.
Useless radio - I would question entire use of an radio in this game as people who play co-op games are very likely to have something a lot better already like Discord voice chat. Radio tend to mess up other voice chats and is never really used. Radios should be a feature which you could disable all together as they do not add anything of value. It is not like you have limited time to communicate, batteries which would run low, etc. It is just strictly inferior alternative to voice chat programs.
Disappointing ending - There are two endings. One is where one of you leaves the castle which is fun and exciting when you realise it being there. Another ending however is incredibly lame. After you go throughout all the trouble of finding secret levers and you escape together only to get a cutscene where one of your dum dum friends just go right back to the haunted castle filled with deathtraps. Just why? What does it reveal? What you are going to do with this ending? What are motivations of a character? You just feel cheated of a proper ending to a game after doing everything right.
Conclusion
It is a short puzzle game with repetitive and easy puzzles which does not overstays its welcome. It has plenty of things which are rough around the edges like poor alternative ending, useless radios or models glitching light through them. However, you can try a free version which is very similar game to this one. We Were Here Too also frequently goes on deep sales and you could pick it up this game next to nothing. At a full price this game is little bit on the expensive side if you do not plan to change roles and replay this game at least once.