Labyrinth deLux - A Crusoe Quest Review

A fun little puzzle game but it lacks some level of variation

Reviewed by Griffin on 26th November 2022

Review

In Labyrinth deLux - A Crusoe Quest you play as Robin a Space Trucker who with her AI computer is pulled into a wormhole and played in a mysterious Labyrinth of puzzle rooms. there are 16 levels in total.

The game took me 3 hours in total but I struggled on the last level missing one mirror (I will explain later) which did bring up my playtime a bit.

As with all puzzle games, this playtime could vary considerably based on how well you do solve puzzles.

I played on the Following Specs

Intel i7 7700k

Nvidia GTX 1080ti

16Gb Ram

HP Reverb G2

Graphics & Presentation

Graphically I really liked the way the game looked it's 3D but all the textures are these lower resolution pixel art styles heavily stylized and has a fun retro style to it all.

What I disliked was a lack of graphics options specifically because I assume this game was developed foremost as a quest title which has no need for settings. Notably, the anisotropic filtering was very low in the game.

Sound FX & Music

There was very little music to speak of but there was voice action Robin your AI computer and these alien Tablets are fully voiced, the actor who does robin does a good job but the other two are I believe computer generated voices which work for the robot aesthetic but do lead to some pronunciation issues in the game, not a big deal just something that stuck out to me.

Gameplay & Immersion

The gameplay is really simple in this there are these colour lasers which you need to point at the corresponding gems to activate the door, you must reflect the laser off of the mirror which you can direct, there is a rating system three points system, the less mirrors you use the higher your score.

In later levels, static mirrors which cannot be moved are introduced and the ability to split the light into RGB is also added.

And this static mirror was my down fall as they are usually easy to see but on the final level there is a very small mirror which took me ages to notice as it blends in to the grey walls but this mirror was essential to solving the puzzle.

the puzzle themselves are really simple they don't really go up in complexity as the levels progress mostly just size, which can be annoying as oftentimes you have already figured out the puzzle in your head its then just the slow matter of walking to each mirror and adjusting them.

The game also allows you to walk on any surface effectively rotating the world which is a fun gimmick but on larger levels makes it easy to become disoriented, I think a way to correct this would be to allow the placement of one beacon that can be seen through walls that way it would be easier to remember your place relative to an object.

Controls

Controls were fairly intuitive the game allows for smooth and teleport movement.

One small issue I had is the hands seemed needlessly physics enabled which would sometimes leave your hands stuck in side mirrors are you move them.

Value & Replayability

As for value and replayability, I think $17 is a little steep for the amount of content here which lacks a lot of challenge and replayability technically there are multiple ways to solve a puzzle but its really just more of the same

Final Thoughts

it's a fun game I liked the visuals and voice acting in the game. however, gameplay is a little simple and lacking in the challenge for the later levels, I would recommend it if on at least a small discount.

Great stylized look