Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is the next indie game gem

Simogo/Annapurna Interactive

Imagine you wake up in a dark forest with an old car nearby, some creepy sounds emanating from the aether, and no idea what’s happening. In your hands is a purse, and in that purse is a pack of tampons and some car keys. Only one of those objects has a logical use at that given moment, and it’s not the tampons. Off you trundle to the car, keys in hand, to see if you can figure out just what the heck is going on.

You don’t have to imagine it if you play Lorelei and the Laser Eyes, the next project from Annapurna Interactive and Sayonara Wild Hearts developer Simogo. The puzzle horror game drops you in a forest outside an eerie hotel with no direction, no clues – not even a tutorial to teach you what happens when you start pressing buttons. 

That loose, hands-off structure is Lorelei’s biggest strength and cleverest touch. It gradually teaches you to think and act differently, to take nothing for granted and to look deeper than the surface to find alternate meanings and possibilities, all without feeling forced and unnatural. Rare are the games that manage such a feat successfully, and I can’t think of another experience that comes even remotely close. Lorelei seeps under your skin almost without you realizing, until it’s all you can think about.

Bet that person on the other side of the bloodied, cracked mirror is real nice and not dangerous at all / Simogo/Annapurna Interactive

A letter in the car gives you just enough context to know where you need to go next, but not why or, crucially, how. The general idea is that you’re helping a filmmaker with his next project, though that’s barely scratching the surface. Who this mysterious artist is, why you’re at the hotel, and whether any of this is even really happening – Lorelei and the Laser Eyes leads you along and reveals just enough to make you think you might be catching on, before blindfolding you, spinning you around, and shoving you in another direction. 

That’s all I’ll say about the story for now. It’s dark, deliciously unsettling, and unwaveringly stylish. Speaking of style, I never stopped feeling impressed by how Simogo used two colors and a handful of shades to create such a powerful atmosphere that complements the story to perfection and even plays a key role in its puzzles.

Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is the kind of game that expects you to take notes and make connections on your own. Sure, there’s an in-game notebook that keeps track of important details you find and any documents you read, but it doesn’t do the thinking for you.

Good luck keeping track of what's real / Simogo/Annapurna Interactive

The star of the piece remains silent, offering no opinions about how useful that object you just found might be for unlocking a door you ran into 45 minutes ago. If you find something interesting, you’d be wise to jot down its major features and possible relationship to other documents.

Some puzzles are as simple as noticing color patterns on a number pad – “simple,” I say, as if I didn’t spend 15 minutes scouring the area for keys or clues before realizing the answer. Others give you vague directions that make no sense until you find another object somewhere else. Math puzzles sit comfortably next to word logic and pattern recognition, and while the number of moving pieces feels a little overwhelming at times, the satisfaction of finally cracking it usually outweighs the embarrassment of not figuring it out sooner.     

There’s much more to Lorelei and the Laser Eyes than we’ve said here, and we’ll have a deeper dive into the indie game ahead of its May 16, 2024, launch on Nintendo Switch and Steam.