Quern - Undying Thoughts

This is a Myst-like, a fantasy steampunk setting with mystical links between worlds and a bunch of old machines to manipulate while listening to the musings of a dude with coloniser vibes, although we don't necessarily trust him. It's well-made, looks wonderful, the music, voice acting and design is fantastic, and the rewards for some of the later puzzles are some big wow moments as they change the environment around you. The story has some cool sci-fi/fantasy concepts, and it discusses the tension between science and exploitation in a way that isn't too preachy. It leaves you to draw your own conclusions. The puzzles aren't very difficult, but they give a bit of a challenge. There are three main types: 1. Code transcription, with strange glyphs and a key that solves the cypher. Some of them have a lot of steps but as long as you can follow them they're fairly straighforward. 2. Maths/geometry puzzles. They're not too complex, you just need to figure out the rules and how to reduce them to a simple maths problem. 3. Inventory puzzles. Find all the bits and rub them together in the correct order. It's just walking around the world till you find the thing and going, "Oh, that fits there." This is where the game got a bit tedious for me, although the rest of the game was good enough that I mushed through it. The machines are intentional puzzles set by your forebear, which explains why they exist, but also it makes the whole thing feel more curated than the Myst series where you're often fixing broken machines that have a practical purpose. The explanation is easier because it's just "puzzle", but none of the machines are as interesting for that reason. There is no deeper implied story to them, and they magically stop working when the puzzle is done, which is less satisfying to me. Those complaints are why it lost a star. It's definitely worth playing, and this puzzle style may suit other people more than it suited me.

I really enjoyed Quern. Its story is a bit strange, however the game is enjoyable, puzzles are not too hard (though I had to use walkthrough maybe 4 times, it just didn't click to me what to do next), interface is nicely implemented, all of the puzzles make sense, they are really well crafted. It took me 19 hours to finish the game (using walkthrough at certain points, if not, I would need much more time). Nicely designed world, not too big, not too small, just right in my opinion. Nice game!

Q:UT is beautiful and atmospheric, its puzzles are challenging without being abstruse, and it's just generally a pleasure to play. There's also a great deal to do, but I'm trying to draw the game out as long as possible, because it's the only game of its kind for us Disciples of Tux that I've been able to find.

Beautiful world, great story, and great ending.

As the review below says, there are a lot of places where a puzzle requires a repetitive task after you've already worked out the solution to the puzzle. Something that happens very often is that a machine will have 4 dials on which you have to enter a number, and it takes a separate mouse-click or even mouse-drag for each single increment of each dial. Add an extra star if you'll be playing on a Qwerty keyboard and won't want to remap WASD.