Blue Prince

(available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC. PlayStation 5 version used for this review)

Blue Prince is a breakout indie game that came out a couple of weeks ago from a developer named Dogubomb. It’s very hard to describe what this game is like. It’s sort of an escape room roguelike. You’re playing the nephew of a wealthy individual who just passed away in a mansion that resets itself every night.

There are 45 rooms known to exist, and in the uncle’s will, he leaves everything to his nephew under the provision that he can find himself the 46th room. You basically create the blueprints for the house every day, with the day ending when you can either no longer travel because you’ve blocked yourself off or you’ve run out of the number of steps you can do.

Blue Prince not only requires a ton of strategy because there are a ton of puzzles to solve throughout the house, some of them with permanent answers and some of them changing their answers with each run (for example, the darts puzzle in the billiards room changes a lot) but because this game is all about discovery, I won’t give away any of the answers- as a result, it might be a bit difficult for me to discuss this game. All I can say is that I do recommend this game, but if you want to go into it completely blind, leave the review here and come back to it after.

PROS

• Puzzles

The gameplay in this one is incredibly addictive- most roguelikes are! You have to figure out good routes to get to specific areas in the house where you think the 46th room might be, but even then, there’s a lot more to it than that. I played this game just trying to get to one specific area only to find that it didn’t pay off when I succeeded, and I had to become a bit cleverer.

You have to figure out via trial and error what keys will work where, where will be blocked off, you have to hope you don’t find many locked doors, you have to plan your route around the house, etc.

The rooms come in several colour varieties, orange is for hallways, purple is for special item rooms, and the red rooms come with many exits but they also come with a knockback- one that you will encounter early on is the Chapel, which comes with many exits but it comes with the drawbacks that you have to donate money every time you enter. You’ll get the hang of it the more you play, and you can even upgrade rooms as you go and some puzzles come with permanent solutions, so you won’t have to redo it, or if you do, it just becomes a routine thing- but you have to pay attention! Look around the rooms and really start thinking through every little detail and take notes! The game even tells you to do this.

I took notes on my phone and had plenty just noting down certain number combinations that I thought could be codes for something later down the line, or if I figured out how a certain special key could work, I noted that down for future references for future strategies.

You also need certain combinations to solve certain puzzles, which can be an issue because you can’t guarantee that you’ll find the codes in your playthrough and even if you do, it might not work! I figured out by the end of it that there are at least two rooms required to be discovered in order to finish the game. You can choose either one of them to do it, but you will have to find as many of those rooms as you go along. Trust me, you need to be clever.

The puzzles are really engaging. I thought that the ones I enjoyed the most were the recurring ones, and I found it interesting that they got more difficult as the days went on! It took me 51 in game days to pull off finishing the game, and I don’t think I found everything in that time!

Man was this game addicting to play. I spent hours just trying to get a bit closer to the 46th room just hoping to find something that would give me a better idea or even an upgrade. When I finally did hit those major milestones, it gave me such a rush! That being said,

you can hit several points where you think you’d hit a milestone, but you don’t quite hit it, including one time towards the end where I thought I was going to finish the game only to have my run ended abruptly- it felt like a massive gut punch.

• Soundtrack

You wouldn’t think much of it considering that they weren’t really going for iconic tunes, but the ambience really fits the game! It really gives that sense of isolation and discovery with the tones and designs of the mansion.

It’s not the most amazing thing in the world, but the soundtrack changes as you go along depending on your progress. I think my favourite track is the final track of the game, since it gives you that brilliant sense of achievement.

MIXED

• Story

The story itself is actually not too much of a factor in this game since the gameplay is just you figuring out how to navigate your way through this changing house, but there is a lot going on in the story if you’re willing to find it. You have to find letters and documents spread along this house in a very Resident Evil way, and if you can pull it off, you’ll discover a remarkably interesting story.

I will stress however that I’ve always been a bit mixed on this method especially considering that this way of storytelling is quite easy to miss if you don’t pick up certain documents or books that tell you what’s been going on and why the nephew was chosen to receive the inheritance etc. While you can get through a large portion of exploring the manor including the library if you go to that room a couple of days in a row, I kind of wish there were more cutscenes with dialogue in them. The final cutscene really only works if you found enough of those documents, and even I felt like I missed a few of them and I couldn’t understand everything.

CONS

• Puzzles are too Vague.

I know that’s a bit strange to say since for the most part I was praising the puzzles, but for a few of them I had to look up a guide. I don’t want to give too many examples because I don’t want to spoil anything, but there was one in a certain room where I felt that I had no idea what I was doing and when I looked up the answer I said, ‘How the hell was I supposed to figure that out?’. I suppose it plays into the roguelike nature, and I can hardly bash it for that, but some of them I did think didn’t quite work, and I don’t think that there’s any shame in looking up solutions.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Blue Prince is an amazing achievement. I adored the puzzle gameplay in this one and the only real shame I have is that I won’t get to experience this game for the first time ever again. It has the addictive nature of a roguelike, the soundtrack is amazing, and the sense of achievement when you’re done is ecstatic. I adored playing this and it’s one of the best games I’ve played so far this year. It’s currently available on PlayStation Plus Extra and Xbox Game Pass, I highly recommend giving it a go. It’s not the best-looking game but I’d give that a pass considering it’s made by an Indie studio, but the atmosphere is great to get lost in.

FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10