Developer: Silver Lining Studio
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS5, Switch, Xbox Series X|S
Genre: Adventure, Puzzle
Publisher: Playism
The Star Named EOS is a story-rich puzzle adventure game. This game was developed by Silver Lining Studio and published by Playism. A few games similar to this game would be Season: A letter to the future, A Little to the Left… etc. This review was done on the PC, but the game is also available on PS5, macOS, Linux, Switch and Xbox.
The Star Named Eos is a single-player game where you play as Dei, who is reconnecting with his mother through letters and photographs she has left behind. The game incorporates several levels where you unlock a memory that Dei shared with his mother and add to his scrapbook through photographs. Obtaining the photographs requires solving several puzzles that let you gather pieces to recreate Dei’s mother’s photos. As you progress through the game, you unveil more of your mother’s memories. The game encourages the player to snap pictures of many scenic views and items that can fill up Dei’s scrapbook.
The controls to The Star Named EOS are extremely easy to get a hang of. When starting off the game, there are hints and mechanics that are shown to the player so they can familiarise themselves with working the camera and interacting with items. As the game does not require much movement but rather camera movement, it allows the player to take in the environment they are in. From where your character is stationed, you can observe the items in the room and interact with them from where you are. This is a great way to keep things from being missed. All the controls worked quite smoothly without any visible delay. The controls were not overly complicated and were mainly kept to a minimum, which works well alongside the cosy playstyle of the game.
The art style for The Star Named EOS is beautifully hand-drawn, which captivates stunning landscapes and detailed items. The beginning of the game captures the player’s attention through the several layered details that are present in Dei’s room. The ambience in the game in the different levels is striking and is brought to life with the sounds and music that gets played in the background. The usage of dynamic lighting and bright colours brings a pop to the environment of the game. I love the visuals as they have a soft hand-drawn feature to them, which resembles close to a storybook. Character designs are also lively and have a realistic yet cartoonish look to them. In addition to the visuals, the soundtrack makes the game even more alluring with the completion of the visuals. The soundtrack can be described as vivid and enchanting almost. It has a soft tune of instruments like a piano and violin. The music is soothing and really creates a cosy atmosphere. I quite liked the sound effects of the camera, which made the game feel surreal, especially with the dialogue followed by it. Another great addition to the game was the voice lines, which sounded extremely angelic and soothing.
The gameplay for The Star Named EOS consists of a prologue and five chapters. Each level plays out very similarly to the other, almost creating an escape room atmosphere. The levels of the game have a variety of puzzles that need to be solved and can include anything from receiving Morse code to entering code and many more. This game heavily focuses on an array of puzzles, some a lot more difficult than others but have a great challenging point for players. As each level has an escape room feel to it, certain puzzles/items need to be completed in order to progress forward, but I felt that sometimes trying to find puzzles was difficult. In some cases, you may have obtained an item but would be unsure of exactly where to use it or if another puzzle needed to be completed before using that item. As the game did not seem to give any hints, it did get a bit challenging and frustrating on exactly how to progress, which would be one of the downsides to the game. I quite liked how the game focused on telling a story through photographs, which reminded me of the Season: A letter to the future game, except this just included puzzles. The concept of the game where you had to build up to replicating Dei’s mother’s photo was charming and satisfying as it would give great purpose to solving the puzzles. Even though you are solving a mix of puzzles, it’s nothing but relaxing and a little brain-wracking, but in a good way. It creates this calm and soothing environment for the player that they can sit back and solve too.
As the game is story enriched, it is definitely one that is pleasant, sweet, and has some twists and turns that you may not have guessed, to begin with. The story in this game is heartfelt, and I love how it unfolded through the levels you explored. Additionally, capturing more and more photos of certain items would also add to the story, which is very charming. The game took me about three hours to fully complete, mainly depending on how you find the difficulty of some puzzles. Personally, this game was a great way to approach a puzzle game with a charming and relaxing atmosphere. As someone who has played many daunting and horrifying puzzle/escape games, this was great for a change, and I would definitely recommend it.
The Star Named EOS is a story-enriched puzzle game that gets players to solve an array of challenging puzzles while reconnecting with the character Dei’s mother. You play through a number of levels that have stunning, alluring landscapes that captivate the player’s attention and get you to really use your camera to its full content. The game features a relaxing, cosy atmosphere with beautiful visuals and a melodic soundtrack. If you want to try out a fun, charming story puzzle game, then be sure to check out The Star Named EOS.
Overall: 8/10
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