I've played Order of the Sinking Star on a couple of occasions now, and have had the game presented to me a few times. There was the demo as part of the most recent Steam Next Fest, which gave everyone the chance to delve into the early stages of Thekla's packed fantasy puzzle world, and the more recent build I've been digging into as of late, which let me get far into the late game (with some assistance from creator Jonathan Blow, it's worth adding). However, even with more hours in the game than I've spent for some reviews at this point, in no way have I grasped every element of Order of the Sinking Star.
The game is simply huge. When in a Discord session with Blow, we were given some cheats to help us understand the scale of Order of the Sinking Star, and if I was going into the game completely blind and saw the whole map in front of me, I think I'd be far too overwhelmed to keep going. Fortunately, the game doesn't just throw the option of doing 1000+ puzzles at you and then leaves you alone. Instead, its story, its world, and its mechanics are yours to explore, at your own pace.
"Is this the afterlife?" our main character asks when we first load up the game. I didn't get to the point of an answer with that question. It was one of many mysteries left unsolved after my time with Order of the Sinking Star, but it was certainly a great hook that made me ready to push on and explore more of this fantasy world. Compared to other puzzle games I've played as of late, which opt for simple colours and more obvious design to make it clear what you're meant to move and interact with, Order of the Sinking Star is a beautiful game. It offers a grid-based, top-down view, complimented by vibrant light, a variety of environments and biomes, and objects that are instantly clear in their purpose and design. Nothing blends into the background, making you feel like the game's trying to trick you by hiding a thing you could move to solve a puzzle. A lot of the time I spent pondering the solution to a puzzle, I'd just be pacing around the map, enjoying the movement animations and world around me.
Because Order of the Sinking Star is such a large game, it does have to spend a good deal of time teaching you things. Certain mechanics are explained in their respective areas, as the map is split into four main paths, that then cross over the more you explore. The Heroes path, for example, is a lot about moving crystals around, or in the case of the pesky wizard, swapping their position with yours. But, combine that with the Mirrors path, and you'll be shoving objects in certain angles to shift them over to different islands in a watery map. The overlapping mechanics keep things fresh, and the progression is set so that you shouldn't run into anything that's going to overwhelm. Even if you do, there's always another route to take, another puzzle to solve while you leave your roadblock in the back of your mind. There's a great focus on player freedom in Order of the Sinking Star. Even ending the game is up to you, as there are multiple endings you can achieve, none of which require you to have every single puzzle solved, according to Blow.
If there's one thing that might stop Order of the Sinking Star from being a monumental success, it's that it does risk being too busy. There are enough mechanics in this game to have made multiple separate puzzlers. I'm a huge proponent of ambition in game development, and in the early hours of Order of the Sinking Star I've not yet felt like there's too much going on, but now I know the size of the map, I wonder if there will be a point where it just feels like you've done so much, but still have such a journey ahead. Blow did say he doesn't want this game to have to be someone's life for months on end, but even with all the efforts made to prevent burn out, I'm left wondering if it's an inevitability for some players with this size of game.
Where I believe Blow and his team at Thekla has burn out beat is in Order of the Sinking Star's narrative component. It's not a story that tells you a lot, but it tells you enough to give you that spark of intrigue that burrows its way into the back of your mind as you continue to solve puzzles. As there are overlapping mechanics, stories combine as you see different characters appear across the paths you'll explore and puzzles you'll solve. The interwoven story into the mechanics is always satisfying to experience, even if the puzzles leave you stumped. I've barely scratched the surface of Order of the Sinking Star right now, and I'm quite happy with that, as I am always happy to see more.
