Recursive Ruin

in library

3.9/5

( 9 Reviews )

3.9

9 Reviews

English & 6 more

Overall most helpful review

Posted on: May 20, 2022

V0idhead

Verified owner

Games: 428 Reviews: 4

Recursions are amazing

Recursive Ruin is a short but intense and mind-bending ride. The recursion mechanic allows for some pretty unique and clever level designs, sometimes just getting to where you are supposed to be is the challenge, you'll have to find the right loophole in the recursion to progress. I would have liked a bit more levels, especially since the game has the tendency to introduce concepts (gravity, light-beams, shield-sphere-thingies) in a level and then never reuse those in subsequent levels. At least a final level that mixes the different types of puzzles would have been nice. Hopefully there will be a sequel or at least a DLC. But I guess for the low price the length is adequate. The puzzles themselves are always clever, but never hard or unfair. Although you will have to use the weird geometry in your favor without getting your brain all twisted up. If you are still unsure about the game I urge you to at least give the demo a try.

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Posted on: May 26, 2022

wizard_of_iz

Verified owner

Games: 4 Reviews: 1

A Stunning Audio and Visual Experience

This is a very unique game that is part narrative and part puzzle. I highly recommend to try the demo first, as it will give you an example of both sides. For the story portion- it is somber at times, with a human element, and other times is strange and surreal with a cast of otherworldly looking characters. (There is a talking cat of course) The puzzles revolve around shifting the repeating world. There are optional hints throughout the game if you need help. I loved the beautiful visuals of the kaleidoscopic world and overall aesthetic of this game. The sound effects were cool and really added to the atmosphere and story. Overall I enjoyed this game, a real hidden gem.

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Posted on: April 20, 2024

Shalmendo

Verified owner

Games: 623 Reviews: 8

Clever Puzzles

Let me start off by saying I ENJOYED this game. For the most part. The puzzles were incredibly creative and the recursion mechanics were very appropriately mind bending and rewarding to solve. That said, the story felt like it was a bit out of place or even superfluous. I would recommend a 'psychological horror' tag, or at least mentions of the portrayal of drug use and more. Coming from an abusive household myself, the story got a little too close to home and I doubt I'm going to want to replay this game again, despite the clever puzzles. Something I'd like to tell the developer is that stories about abuse and similiar psychological horror are only fun and entertaining to people who didn't have to go through remotely simliar trauma themselves. I did, so those story elements made me distinctively stressed and uncomfortable. Maybe some people find that fun (As many people who go to an amusement park to experience distressingly high speeds and gravityu forces do, for the novelty) but I struggled with enjoying that part of the game. However, the story was still integrated fairly decently, I just thought the content of the story was a bit much. drug use is mentioned, and child abuse as well. I'd say that should warrant some kind of warning label for thoose who are more sensitive. Regardless, I'm still giving this 4 out of 5 stars because the rest of the game was excellently done with impressive visuals and mechanics. The story may be a hit or miss based on the individual playing it and I'm sure many people will still find it quite interesting and entertaining, so I'm not considering that too heavily in my rating. This is a good game, just be wary of the story content and how it might make you feel.

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Posted on: July 29, 2023

Sithobi1

Verified owner

Games: Reviews: 2

Good puzzles, overwrought narrative.

About half the game is a pretty good environmental puzzle game in the vein of Manifold Garden. The other half is a dreary, aurally painful "art-y" experience which doesn't integrate well into the rest of the game, some of which involves long unskippable walks.

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Posted on: April 9, 2023

ecamber

Verified owner

Games: 344 Reviews: 31

Beautiful game, cool puzzles

Overall I had a lot of fun with this game! It has one of the best concepts I have ever seen in a puzzle game - playing with the recursion mechanic is a lot of fun (even ignoring the puzzles and just doing your own thing) and the visual design of the levels is just beautiful. You can tell that the devs had a very strong artistic vision for this game which shines through across all the levels. One of the most unique thing about recursive ruin is that it intentionally bucks the "progression" trend of most puzzle games. In most puzzle games, you get a basic set of mechanics/objectives (i.e. put the box on a pressure pad) and that stays constant, with more puzzle elements being added on as the game progresses. In this game, each level has a brand-new set of inventive puzzles and mechanics, which keeps things fresh. It also serves to constantly cause the player to feel they are in an "alien" world where they aren't quite sure how things work. And I should mention that I never encountered any "mazes" in this game that another review referenced, all the puzzles are quite clever and involve using the environment to your advantage. The one downside to this game is the story. While it's not a "bad" story per se, I don't think it tied super well to the gameplay and wasn't even very clearly told. At the end I understood more but still had a lot of questions. There is a lot of time in the game spent listing to audio logs etc. I understand that the developers were trying to tell a deeper message with the game, but I would have preferred a much shorter game focused primarily on the puzzles and environments. It would also help the replay value - I want to wander around the world again but don't care about the story. I think if the developers had cut most of the "real-world" story, added a bit more/clearer "fantasy" story, and added a few more challenging puzzles this could be my favorite Portal-like of all time. But as it stands it is still very highly recommended!

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Recursive Ruin

Recursive Ruin is a kaleidoscopic first-person narrative puzzle game.

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