Are we here to witness the best from Jonathan Blow?

From legendary director Jonathan Blow (Braid, The Witness) comes Order of the Sinking Star, a massive narrative adventure featuring more than one thousand hand-crafted puzzles designed to put your intellect to the test. As Queen Effia, you are transported to a realm of curious magic, dangerous contraptions, and vicious monsters. As you make your way, you will explore four distinct worlds, each with its own mechanics, characters, and stories, and then watch as they all collide. As the worlds merge, and characters meet one another, puzzle systems intertwine, creating surprising new gameplay possibilities. Explore at your own pace, revisit worlds and return to challenges as you see fit. Discover unique playable characters, master evolving gameplay mechanics, and decipher the deep mysteries of a sprawling, interconnected game world. Blending exploration, storytelling, and ever-progressing mechanics, Order of the Sinking Star invites you into a mysterious, living puzzle unlike anything you’ve played.

Braid changed how we looked at 2D platformers, especially with the last-minute twist. The Witness was a very different game with its first-person adventure with tons of puzzles scattered. Order of the Sinking Star again takes us in another different direction to what Jonathan Blow has delivered before. It’s traditional puzzler but on a much larger scale as it’s interconnected with over 1000 puzzles to conquer, most of which are block-based but there are a few curveballs thrown in that sets it apart from most puzzle games.

I won’t spoil the story or just how clever Order of the Sinking Star is, it’s one of those games where it’s really best left for you to discover yourself. Even after beating it, I can’t help feeling that I’ve missed some obscure puzzle that maybe someone will discover in about 10-20 years.

It has that elusive feel to it throughout where you’re sure you’re making progress, but wherever you have done everything it has to offer will always bother you. The puzzles themselves are well designed and have some interesting solutions. The difficulty does vary throughout, with some feeling simple and others feeling very tough to conquer.

The visuals are fairly simple but have a nice charm to them, while the soundtrack is incredible throughout. Framerate is solid and I didn’t come across any glitches during my playthrough.

The Verdict

It’s been nearly a decade since The Witness came out and it was always going to be tough to live up to that for Jonathan Blow’s third game, but Order of the Sinking Star shows that he isn’t afraid to take risks and it does deliver yet another incredible experience from beginning to end. And even then, you won’t be fully sure if you’ve done it all.

Score: 8.5