Grab a notebook. Every answer is another mystery in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes.
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is an eclectic, puzzle-filled, haunted-mansion mystery thriller for PC and Nintendo Switch. It’s a mystery game, and not only in the narrative sense. Discovering what kinds of puzzles are hidden in its halls and what they look like on your screen is all part of its charm. But getting the answer is never enough. The mechanical status quo—the UI, art style, perspective—all warp with the mystery. It’s not just a challenge to find a code, but also to read it, and then use it on whatever surface is in front of you.
That’s all you really need to know to pick Lorelei up, and it is the best way to experience what may well be a contender for game of the year—I’ll endeavor to avoid any serious spoilers as a result.
Lorelei bears little resemblance to Swedish studio Simogo’s 2019 neon rhythm game, Sayonara Wild Hearts. It’s slow, all grayscale with distinguished red accents—blood, wine, some other stuff that won’t make sense yet. And its pacing is built around your own wit. Simogo has previously played in this realm to smaller acclaim: The text-based mystery game Device 6 was an early iOS hit. And while both games involve reading through the content of text documents (letters, scripts, notes, books) to find answers, Lorelei has a whole haunted manor filled with puzzle boxes, safes, locked doors, mazes, and other puzzles that aren’t immediately evident.
Set in the Hotel Letztes Jahr, Lorelei builds off archetypal mystery settings and figures to establish its tense tone. The player character, who I’m only 90% sure is named Renate, is an artist invited to the remote central European woods by eccentric bohemian filmmaker Renzo Nero, an aloof, sometimes threatening person evoking Remedy’s riddle-laden janitor Ahti.
