Home Sweet Home
Have you ever wanted to inherit a mansion? I know. Me too. That’s what Blue Prince developed by Dogubomb and published by Raw Fury sets out to bestow onto players, but there’s a bit of a catch. Your grandfather has chosen you to inherit his castle keep filled with secrets, but you have to find a secret room amongst the layout. Ol’ Grandpa isn’t worried though, he suggests you’ll definitely find it. On the surface, this sounds like a simple task, but in practice, this rogue like puzzle adventure has a much more complex blueprint to for players to decipher. So let’s step into the great hall and unlock some doors in this review.
“Keep an Eye on the Staircases, They Like to Change “
Blue Prince keeps gameplay very fresh with rogue like elements. This puzzle is a true rubics cube. Every run is different and whenever players unlock a door in the mansion they are greeted with three choices of blueprints to draw. Once drawn, players can enter the room and reel the spoils to help them along the mansion walk. The strategy is simple: unlock every doors to reach the final hallway to unlock the hidden room. Grandpa is a tricky old man though. Before he died, he clearly planned this all out.
During the course of running through the halls like Kevin McAllister, players will find rooms like kitchens, chapels, and even security rooms. While it’s fun to just simply take in the atmosphere, it’s important to scope out every corner of the rooms. Coins, gems, keys, and keycards are scattered about for players to pocket. This is where the rogue like elements kick in. Every run gives players different rooms in different orders, but it also resets inventory. It’s important to decide when to use the gems and coins throughout. There’s a commissary that offers new tools, and items for players to use. I bought a magnifying glass for instance in one run, and in the other I used a shovel to dig up items in a greenhouse. Just when you think you’ve seen everything, the game throws a new puzzle at you. Sometimes, rogue likes can get frustrating when players feel like they have a good run and have to start over. Blue Prince has enough variety though, that I kept wanting to come back and uncover more lore and secrets about my grandfathers life. It felt very personal and engaging to look at documents, and find out more like taking a magnifying glass to a picture and seeing hidden codes in it for the security room. They really thought of every layer in this game.
Luxurious Layouts and Views
Graphically, Blue Prince didn’t have to be this gorgeous. As a smaller container game, the cell shading and realistic cartoon vibe helped a ton with immersion. While it can feel slow to walk everywhere, every step is counted when you enter rooms. So the slow pace helped me think about the moves I was making. It can be destructive to the journey when simply running around and not thinking of every move. That being said, it doesn’t feel like Blue Prince forces players to experience the game in only one way. I spent an entire step count just exploring the grounds and found a humble campsite and more. The sound design in the game is ambient, and it only adds to the overall mood and feel of exploring the mansion.
I have not found the final room yet, but I’ve put in about 10 hours just exploring. Blue Prince presents itself as a cozy casual puzzle game, but the difficulty level is anything but comfortable. This is a slow burn type of game and I’m loving it in between sessions of other games outside of this genre. It’s also a great cloud pick up and play on PlayStation Portal. Just be careful as once you turn it off, it does not save during cloud sessions. Make sure you stream it from PS5 if you plan to put it down otherwise you are starting an entirely new day and will lose all progress.
Family Values
It’s clear that a lot of love went into Blue Prince. Overall, whether you’re playing this game as part of a subscription, or playing it for the low entry price of $29.99CAD, you cannot go wrong with this title. It does everything it sets out to do right, and I’m hungry for more! Perhaps there will be a DLC to inherit a summer home… after all, Gramps had quite the magical mansion!
Blue Prince Review
Summary
Blue Prince is a master class in puzzle based rogue like storytelling, and it will leave players hungry for more during and after finishing the title.
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