If you’re experienced in the London rental market, there’s only one way to react to a game that promises to leave you stranded in a vast maze of flats – a French game, and a cultural product of a country where two-bedroom flats grow on trees. “Haha, not bad for some!” you chuckle, after you’ve freed yourself from the laundry basket and pulled your trousers out of the fridge. “I bet mazes have more than one window,” you sob, once again addressing the problem of opening the front door without a section of wall.
If you’ve had any experience of the London rental market, you’re probably reading this and thinking: “It has a front door? How luxurious. I live in a folded umbrella.” Touché, mate. I guess it’s a good thing we have large-scale first-person puzzle adventures to console us in times of compound elbow bruises, rising humidity and ridiculous financial debt. In that context, Looking For Fael looks like fun.
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Swing Swing is a first-person Myst 'em up created by Submarine and published by ARTE, a game similar to Witness-a-lot and/or Fez (these are the developers' own stated influences, also 90s fantasy films) where you wake up one day to a phone call from your friend Fael, who is lost in his own apartment. When you set out to look for him, you discover that your own apartment and its surroundings are a complete labyrinth. It's a good thing you remembered your handheld console was legitimately different from the Game-Boy-Advance-SP.
“To open all the doors and corridors and access certain rooms, players must exercise their brains and solve numerous mysteries using GameLeaf, an engaging retro portable console that will help them complete levels,” the announcement explains. “Each game is a piece of the puzzle that brings players closer to the truth about Fael's disappearance.
“The experiment is at the heart of the experience, and players will need to be very careful and interact with the environment, as every detail is important, from photo frames to uninteresting furniture, everything could be a clue to solving a puzzle,” the release continues. “The world of the circle is full of surprises, and players will have to think outside the box to progress. As they solve the mysterious disappearance of Fael, players will also have to question the nature of reality.”
Thinking outside the box? I wish I had a box to think in. At this price point you’d have to pay around £2,500 a month for that privilege and bring your own cover. Anyway, you can read more of what Fael has been up to on Steam . It’s due out in 2025. The obvious comparison here is Blue Prince , which takes things more towards the board game, with no retro handheld to speak of.