Blue Prince Review – Good Morning, Sweet Prince

Blue Prince Review

The next big indie darling has arrived, and its name is Blue Prince. Games with roguelike elements have been around for a long time, and have been flourishing in recent years. The said, I personally began to tire of them and never thought I’d be so pulled in by another so soon. Enter Blue Prince with its unique take on the roguelike format as a puzzle adventure game. No one really asked that loudly for this combo, but it sure did deliver.

Players take the role of Simon P. Jones who, after his great uncle Herbert S. Sinclair passes away, inherits the Mt. Holly Estate. This, however, is on the condition that Simon locates a hidden 46th room in the mansion. The catch? You must find the room within a single day, and the layout of the house changes daily. As far as roguelike stories go, Blue Prince definitely does it better than average while simultaneously adding to the mystery element of the game.

As a roguelike puzzle adventure title, the gameplay premise is pretty simple. Every day, players start in the lobby of the mansion, faced with three doors. Every time the player decides to open a door, they are able to “draft” or select one of three rooms provided which could be anything from a hallway, to a bedroom, to a wine cellar, and much more. Each of these rooms contain different points of interests or objects such as keys which open locked doors or chests, currency, gems, various clues, or other tools.

Everlasting Exploration

Finding the 46th room of the Mt. Holly Estate is the primary puzzle and objective in Blue Prince, but there are numerous other puzzles and strings to pull on for players. Perhaps the most important part of this game is the experience. In the beginning, the sense of exploration was off the charts. Everything was new to me, I found interesting things in every room, and each day I tried to draft different rooms. Over time, the RNG factor of the game dictates which puzzles you might want to solve. In that sense, while the core gameplay is great, you could go days trying to solve a specific puzzle due to a lack of luck. On the other hand, there are so many different things you are trying to tie together that unless you are laser-focused on a specific puzzle, there is always something new to learn.

Likewise, the puzzles start off relatively simple and continue to get more complex as the days go on. Additionally, players will experience more and more as time goes on as a result of gained knowledge, experience, and the use of specific tools. There is actually a lot to keep track of in terms of puzzles, clues, and objects that the game suggests to keep a notepad handy to make notes multiple times. While I didn’t personally use a pen and paper, I did take a number of photos to keep track of various clues that I found and relied on my memory for everything else.

Perfecting the Loop

Overall, the gameplay loop in Blue Prince is top notch for its genre. While there is a case to be made that the game feels a bit RNG-dependent later on, the game as a whole overshadows any minor issues. The game, in theory, shouldn’t work as well as it does but Blue Prince manages to pull it off for the most part. Where Blue Prince differs from other roguelike games is its replayability. In the relative short-term, puzzles and solutions will remain with us for a period of time, so a player’s first experience of the title will be its best. I don’t feel that starting over in a year will have the same impact as doing another run in a combat-based roguelike title.

In The Eye of the Beholder

The game’s art style works well in portraying the overall mood and setting. While the game likely won’t win any Best Graphics or Best Art awards this year, the game’s visuals excel particularly when it comes to puzzles and clues. It is very easy to identify items and locations of interest, and the use of tools allows players to easily glean additional context to specific objects and clues. Likewise, the audio of the game didn’t stand out, but audio clues were easy to determine and helped players continue their journey into Mt. Holly.

Blue Prince is an exceptional puzzle game, and one that we didn’t necessarily ask for in its roguelike form. While the game provides you with a clear objective at the start, it quickly becomes apparent that there is a lot more than one final objective to keep you coming back to Blue Prince, even after finding the 46th room. Once in a while, a game comes along and changes the gaming landscape for the foreseeable future. With the arrival of Blue Prince, I expect to see more games coming in a similar mold over the next few years. While some will hit and some will miss, I doubt many will have the same lasting impact as Blue Prince.

*** A PC review code was provided by the publisher ***