AGAW #3: Order of the Sinking Star
I’ve spent the last few evenings playing Jonathan Blow’s Order of the Sinking Star, working my way through the first 100 or so puzzles. I’ve only really explored one region so far, so I’m conscious that I’ve barely scratched the surface of what the game has to offer. Still, I think I’ve seen enough to get a feel for what it’s doing.
At its core, it’s a sokoban-style puzzle game wrapped in a fantasy adventure. Rather than presenting you with a series of abstract puzzles, there’s a world, a cast of characters and a bit of mystery surrounding it all. It’s a nice way of giving an otherwise simple premise a bit more personality. The different characters also have their own abilities, which is a particularly neat touch and opens up some interesting possibilities for the puzzles.
What really stands out, though, is the level design. There are some really clever puzzles here, with those lovely little aha moments where everything suddenly clicks. Some solutions are pretty tough though, and there have been a few where I’ve struggled to work out exactly what the game wants from me and kinda brute forced through. But the game does a great job of introducing mechanics gradually, then combining them in increasingly interesting ways.
It’s a formula we’ve seen in games like Mario for years: introduce a mechanic, let the player get comfortable with it, then start combining it with previously introduced ideas to create new challenges. It’s simple in principle, but incredibly effective when executed well. Order of the Sinking Star does this particularly well. The difficulty curve feels nicely paced, with enough new ideas to keep things interesting without overwhelming you. I never really felt like the game was throwing too much at me, or leaving me wanting more.
I also have to give credit to the quality-of-life features. The undo and reset systems are fantastic. You can rewind an almost unlimited number of moves, it’s incredibly responsive, and I’ve never once felt restricted by how far back I could go. It’s one of those features that makes perfect sense for a game built around experimentation, and it makes the whole experience that much more enjoyable.
The presentation is another highlight. These are fundamentally quite abstract puzzles, but the fantasy setting, characters and world give them a bit more context. Each character’s abilities feel appropriate to who they are, and the game does a good job of making its increasingly complex mechanics feel approachable. It’s a clever way of packaging what could otherwise be a fairly intimidating collection of puzzles.
There are a couple of things I’m less convinced by, particularly around the narrative. Dialogue tends to happen at the beginning and end of levels, with very little interaction in between. I understand the reasoning, as the puzzles are clearly the main attraction, but it can feel a little unnatural when characters are having a conversation, disappear for the entirety of a particularly long puzzle, then pick things back up as if no time has passed. There are also some narrative elements introduced early on, like interactive recording devices, that I haven’t really encountered again. Perhaps these things become more relevant as you explore further.
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