Blue Prince Review

Developer: Dogubomb

Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS5, Xbox Series X|S

Genre: Adventure, Strategy

Publisher: Raw Fury

Blue Prince is a rouge-like strategy puzzle adventure game. The game was developed by Dogubomb and published by Raw Fury. Blue Prince sets itself apart from other puzzle adventure games, creating an experience that is truly unique to players. This review was done on PC via Steam, but the game is also available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. 

Blue Prince is a single-player game where you play as Simon, a teenager who inherits the Mount Holly estate from his late great-uncle, Herbert S. Sinclair. Except, claiming the inheritance comes with a condition where Simon needs to locate the hidden 46th room in the mansion. Each day, Simon is given 50 steps to explore the mansion, and if he is unable to find the 46th room within those steps, the day ends and the mansion resets. The cycle continues as the players start to uncover the mysteries of the mansion and secure Simon’s inheritance. 

The controls for Blue Prince are extremely straightforward, as you will mainly point and click for most interactions, and things that are interactable will have a key pop-up indication. In terms of the mechanics of the game, everything is explained in detail the more you explore the mansion. The game invites players to explore on their own, mainly going in empty-handed without much information in order for them to build up everything they need to know. 

The art style for Blue Prince has somewhat of a resemblance to Escape Academy, where it features cartoonish features with a realistic view to them. The game itself creates a dull vibe where you are caught in endless cycles of exploring rooms. I do love how the design of the room drafts (blueprints) are visualized and the level of detailing added to each room to make them feel real. Each room also has a different theme, with varying lighting, effects, and a great effort made on the ambience. The more rooms you draft, the more the mansion feels like it’s becoming yours. As for the music that plays through the game, there was not much significance to it. It was a mix of mellow instruments that created a ‘dark’ ambience to the game, which I guess comes from exploring a huge, mansion on your own. I just felt that there was nothing exciting about the soundtrack, but it did not take away from the experience at all. 

Blue Prince gets players to go in blind, but that’s where the fun begins. This game is unique and does a great job at putting together roguelite, strategy, exploration game, first person and puzzle solving all together just by exploring rooms in a big mansion. What’s different about this game is that you are building the mansion as you explore it, so no run is similar to another, and every experience is unique to a player. As you interact with a door, you are presented with three room drafts, to which you pick one and are presented with as the door opens. What I found especially interesting about this game was the choice of choosing your next room and the number of steps you had. Picking the room is extremely important as you need to be able to unveil the most amount of rooms, so keeping an eye on the door count is something to be very cautious of, and being very aware of how it positions on the mansion blueprint is even more important.

The game provides players with a blueprint grid that is 9×5, where each room that you draft will fill up one space. Your aim is to fill up all 45 slots and then find the 46th room. Exploring the rooms, even though it may seem like an endless loop, is what got me hooked. I found that when I first started the game, just randomly unlocking doors and paying attention to their effects was important to later build a strategy. Making sure that doorways are placed in a direction that will keep you going and not block off the path is crucial. I had run into some issues in the early parts of this game, where I would not pay attention to the way the rooms faced in the blueprint, and that cost me a doorway. Every decision you make is extremely important to how your run will turn out. 

The rooms will give players a benefit or can have a negative impact on the steps. For instance, drafting the observatory using a gem will allow you to look at stars, and depending on the constellation that you are able to identify, you can get steps and coins, gems, keys and more. Additionally, in each room, you can find a number of items, coins, gems, and tools that can be used in later rooms; these rooms will also consist of various letters and papers that detail the narrative related to each room you enter and what tasks you may be tasked with. Rooms can also have little puzzles for you to solve, which can include arithmetic problems to logic-based ones that are not too difficult. These items can change your run in an instant. In many occurrences, I had found myself encountering locked doors to which later I found keys and could backtrack to those doors. This allowed me to draft rooms even further, but it’s also important to keep an eye on your steps. 

Leaving and entering a room will cost you a step, and the day is only limited to 50. At first, it may seem that those 50 steps will be enough to explore a significant number of rooms, but backtracking can be a significant cost. Every time you leave and reenter a room that; costs you a step each time and brings you closer to the end of your day. Once you run out of those steps, Simon gets tired, and the mansion completely resets, with the room cards getting shuffled and every item you collect being reset. 

When I started this game, I came across a note in the game that read out that it was important to have a pen and paper handy, which I did not think much of until I started to come across several codes, notes, and dates that I knew once my run was over I could never come across them again until a later day. Each run is unexpected; for instance, I had found a code on the 4th day and noted it down just in case, only to find out where it was used on the 10th day. What I love so much about this game is that it gets you to observe details carefully and note down things that will be important for your later runs. As you explore rooms and devise what to draft next, you can flip through your notebook and finally come to the realization of where certain things are meant to go. 

Blue Prince is a game that takes time, and there may be instances where you feel as though your run ran short, but it’s all going to help you on the next day. Each run differs; some will give you a significant amount of coins, whereas others will give you the worst room drafts to choose from. The more you explore, the more time you take planning your next steps (quite literally) you come to closer realizations on how you may get a step closer to finding the 46th room. Blue Prince is a challenge, and I thought that it was best to come back to the game after a few day’s break to reset your mind and look at things from a different perspective. These instances made me realize that the game is not worth looking for help/advice on Google but rather experiencing the game yourself. At one point, I did a screen share of my gameplay with a friend (it does not necessarily have to be a ‘solo’ experience’) and found that it was fun in the sense that they were able to spot things I did not think of as significant which can always be of use in the future.

The game also allows for ‘upgrades’ where you can make changes to Simon by increasing his daily step count or allowing for the gate to be permanently unlocked.  I never found myself getting annoyed by any of the runs that I encountered because, at most, I was finding new information or felt comfortable with what I knew. 

If you are looking for a mind-challenging game where you’re building a mansion on the basis of a blueprint to find the hidden 46th room, then this game is for you. Blue Prince invites players to grab a pen and paper and explore the countless rooms that contribute to becoming one step closer to the ‘end’. Explore the mysteries that the Mount Holly mansion has to offer and the exciting hours that get you caught up in a unique cycle. So, be sure to check out Blue Prince! 

Overall: 8.5/10

S & S Reviews

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