#latlemp

Since this game seems to have slipped under the radar for the most part, I wanted to give it a shout out and recommend it to all lovers of puzzle games.

The basic premise is that you play as a woman invited to a secluded and almost completely uninhabited hotel somewhere in central europe. You're given almost no information to start out and it's up to you to piece together what is happening (and what already happened).

In the house there are puzzles. So many puzzles. Several people have compared the puzzle aspect to Professor Layton (which I have not played). They range from logic puzzles, to patterns, to spotting hidden elements in images, manipulating and mirroring, memory games, etc, etc.

It's not an action game; there are no enemies or combat. I also wouldn't call it horror so much as mystery, though it is a little creepy at times.

The visual aesthetic of it is quite striking, being in black and white with only splashes of red/violet in certain places. Also the soundtrack was fantastic.

It draws a lot of inspiration from things like surrealist cinema, horror games (think original resident evil without combat), and more. Several reviews have said it has Twin Peak vibes. And it has things to say about art and capitalism.

While there are some minor annoyances with the controls (no dedicated back button in menus is the big one), overall it played really well and I never got bored. It's also really fun to play with a second person (no online co-op or anything, just through streaming on discord or something) and work together on the puzzles.

So if you like puzzle games in creepy houses with slowly unfurling mysteries, it's definitely worth grabbing.