The puzzle genre is a blindspot I have had for years. It is hard to pinpoint exactly why I have never been particularly drawn into them because often when confronted with puzzles in other games, they are generally really enjoyable. I grew up playing a lot of point-and-click adventure games and always enjoyed uncovering mysteries by solving little puzzles, but I have never really delved into any of the sort recently. This is why I am happy that doing this website makes me feel obligated to give games a go I would not ordinarily give a chance. Thinking this way has lead me to play the recent puzzler titan everybody’s talking about, Blue Prince. And thank goodness for that because this game is magnificent.

Blue Prince follows a very simple premise. You are the young Simon P. Jones and have been summoned by your late Great Uncle Henry to his old, mysterious estate. You are told in a letter that you are to be Henry’s heir and will thus gain his inheritance. But before this happens, you must search through the strange mansion for the illusive Room 46. This is all a test of Simon’s will, determination and intelligence, and by extension yours too. Strict rules must be abided by during this task, most notably to not sleep in the mansion. Every night, the mansion changes its layout completely and so each day is a mostly fresh start. Henry sets up camp outside the mansion to fully dedicate himself and make sure he earns this inheritance the way his Great Uncle would have wanted him to.

With the setup of this eerie, everchanging mansion before you, all that is left is to discover how you will actually be reaching Room 46. When entering the mansion, you are presented with the entrance hall’s three doors going in different directions. Clicking on either of these doors presents you with three room options. These are rooms you can draft to progress throughout the mansion. You will have to interconnect doorways to get yourself through, using the blueprint map you have to make sure you stay on track. It seems the only real aim is to reach the mysterious Antechamber at the northmost point on the blueprint, but constant exploration reveals it to be much deeper than that. There are puzzles scattered throughout, keys you will find that seemingly do not have locks to fit in and in the early game you will likely be confused. You have only 50 steps to spend, each step being lost whenever you enter a room. If you run out of steps or have reached a dead end, you are forced to ‘call it a day’. This is where the rogue-like elements of this game kick in because the mansion blueprint is made completely empty the next day. What works so well here is the strategy you quickly employ, as a result. You are not necessarily told to go straight for the Antechamber but in trying to do so, you will slowly learn how to do so by playing and constantly failing.

It is incredibly difficult to speak anymore about anything specific in Blue Prince because the game is perfectly set up to teach you. Going in blind, no advice or anything is the best way because the flow of information feels perfect. One example of how this is the case is the library. Once you reach this room, you will probably be managing to work your way through the mansion, but keep hitting unfortunate blocks that could have been avoided with better planning. The library comes at around this time, if you are lucky, and with this room, you can order a book to come for the next time you draft the room on a future day. One of the books really helped me learn where I was going wrong and helped me develop much a more sensible strategy for getting through the mansion. From then on, so long as I was not terribly unlucky, I would generally get much further and each run felt more worthwhile. Not going through the hardships and knowing these things straight away removes any real reward from the game and I wholeheartedly recommend you to go into this knowing nothing more than I write here.

I rolled credits for Blue Prince at 14 hours and after looking at what other people have said, it made me realise how dense this game is. Looking on forums, there are people mentioning things I did not even encounter at all. Lots of lore pieces, hidden puzzles that yield great rewards, this game is huge. People have said that to see 100% of what this game has to offer, you would need about 60 hours to discover it all. That is provided you know what you are doing as well and do not fall in to a rut of RNG not going your way. I was rather lucky, aside from a few runs, and managed to get many of the rooms I needed quite quickly. I found a way that got me into the antechamber and kept trying for that same strategy everytime I needed to get in there but I am positive there are more ways in. There were lore tidbits I discovered but again, there is definitely more to find when exploring. Point being here, there is an overwhelming amount of rooms, puzzles and lore pieces you will not find on your first playthrough. Magically though, somebody else could discover those things you discovered after 40 hours in a fraction of the time because the mansion is everchanging. That is a remarkable thing and part of what makes this game very special.

You may have noticed I have been delivering much of this review in first-person, which I generally try to refrain from. The reason for this is Blue Prince and its discussion benefits greatly from hearing a more personal response. I mentioned my use of the library and how that was the turning point for me but some people may work that strategy out on their own or may discover something else to help them in the same way. Every puzzle in this house has an answer somewhere but you just have to find it, however long that may take. That makes the journey towards finding these solutions very personal. I strongly encourage you to play Blue Prince because there is not much like it that I have ever played. Yes the RNG can be annoying and can ruin some very promising runs but that is the baggage that comes with the rogue-like formula. It is immensely clever and complex, giving a rewarding feeling of working something out like no other game does. You will truly feel like you earned that inheritance at the end because I certainly did.