The Guest Review

<p>I recently <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;puzzle-game-design-philosophies&sol;">talked about puzzle design philosophies<&sol;a>&comma; and one of my complaints was the use of obtuse puzzles that make no sense in the context of the game&&num;8217&semi;s narrative or setting&period; The objective of any puzzle game is to make those obtuse puzzles not feel jarring or inappropriate for the scenario&period; <em>The Guest <&sol;em>is a game which manages to employ various types of puzzles to create a mysterious&comma; yet rich narrative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You wake up in a hotel room in Belmont&comma; Massachusetts&period; Here for the University of Boston&&num;8217&semi;s 9th Annual International Scientific Congress&comma; you are locked inside your room with no escape&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a nice hotel though&comma; and the people who arranged everything didn&&num;8217&semi;t skimp on luxury&period; They even left you with some magazines&comma; newspaper clippings about a missing person&comma; and even some drugs&period; Being lauded as &&num;8220&semi;a first-person exploration game&comma;&&num;8221&semi; <em>The Guest <&sol;em>rarely tries to shy away from making you have to do some digging into every nook and cranny for clues as to what to do next&period; Sometimes it&&num;8217&semi;s in the environment&comma; and sometimes you&&num;8217&semi;re digging through your inventory&comma; but regardless&comma; the game wants you to explore&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;101415" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-101415" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-101415" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03223502&sol;04&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Guest" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-101415" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Guest&comma; 505 Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The benefits of this exploration is that you get to that point when a puzzle surfaces that would seem confusing and daunting if this was your first time experiencing it&period; But along the way you&&num;8217&semi;ve seen clues as to what to do&comma; or found an item that you know means something&comma; yet you can&&num;8217&semi;t quite pinpoint what it is&period; This is a game where observation matters most&comma; and if you&&num;8217&semi;re not paying attention to details&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;re probably going to spend more time in the game than necessary&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Fortunately&comma; the game is willing to guide you on occasion&comma; even if some of the times it is a bit unnecessary&period; I had one puzzle that ended with me being told where to look next&comma; but it wasn&&num;8217&semi;t really necessary because I had already spent time in the room and would have noticed something different to see&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s a minor complaint&comma; but when the game is as smart as it is about puzzle placement and design&comma; it is a bit disappointing to see it still have to help some players&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;101416" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-101416" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-101416" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03223444&sol;07-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Guest" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-101416" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Guest&comma; 505 Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In fact&comma; the game&&num;8217&semi;s narrative is compelling once you start uncovering some of the weirder elements of the game&period; Without going into details&comma; the reason you start being able to piece puzzles together at a quicker pace is because more things begin to stand out as weird in the hotel room&period; The puzzles and the story both go from something natural and grounded to surreal and high-concept&period; Just as I did in <em>The Witness<&sol;em>&comma; I had to take photos and notes for reference to some puzzles&period; The longer the game goes on&comma; the better the puzzles get and in my opinion&comma; the easier they are to understand&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But like any good adventure game&comma; the puzzles aren&&num;8217&semi;t the only element that matters&period; The story starts off fairly conventional as you&&num;8217&semi;re trying to piece together why you&&num;8217&semi;re locked in the room&comma; but the narrative slowly escalates with very big moments punctuating the mysterious nature of everything you&&num;8217&semi;re experiencing&period; Those big moments are visually appetizing&comma; something which is a welcome change from the monotonous layout of the hotel room&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;101414" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-101414" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-101414" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;03&sol;03223519&sol;01&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Guest" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-101414" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;The Guest&comma; 505 Games&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Atmosphere is also a big factor in what makes this game compelling&comma; though it hits most of the basic notes of a game like this&colon; white noise from TVs&comma; static radio transmissions&comma; very muted score&comma; and fitting sound effects&period; It isn&&num;8217&semi;t exceptional&comma; but it makes for an immersive enough experience&comma; especially with a pair of headphones on&period; The game also supports the Oculus Rift according to <em>The Guest<&sol;em>&&num;8216&semi;s official site&comma; which would likely be an incredible experience&period; Those big visual moments mentioned earlier would be absolutely stunning in virtual reality&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This is also the first game from Team Gotham&comma; and it demonstrates an attention to detail in both storytelling and gameplay that isn&&num;8217&semi;t seen that often&period; Both feel like they are connected to one another&comma; as the game&&num;8217&semi;s puzzles get more difficult as the story becomes even weirder&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ll say that the final moments of the game left me with a lot of questions that I&&num;8217&semi;m not sure are answered&period; The ending has a bit too much ambiguity and doesn&&num;8217&semi;t really pretend to provide closure either&period; By the time it reaches its conclusion&comma; though&comma; you&&num;8217&semi;ll be happy you were a guest in this wonderfully surreal narrative&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A PC code for The Guest was provided by 505 Games for the purpose of this review<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;