Alexander Bruce (Antichamber) has given the game high praise as well. I can see why Jonathan Blow (Braid/The Witness) has cited this game as one of the greatest puzzle games of all time. Of course I still have much to do so it's just going to get even more difficult. Think of something like Snakebird, another extremely hard game that looks all cute and innocent on the outside. This is one of the hardest puzzle games out there. But don't be fooled by its funny name or silly premise. I have never thought, "Oh how was I suppose to think of that?" You can undo every move you make too so trying new things is encouraged. Often I get stuck and then realize, "Oh wow I can do that?" While being designed in a way where I naturally stumbled upon it by trying things that seemed possible. You begin pushing and rolling sausages to fully cook them around and while it seems like a simple premise, you are constantly learning new things and playing the game in a much different way than you were before so it never feels repetitive. The game never tells you what or how to do anything. As many people have already said, the design is where it shines. Seems people are reporting an average of 40-60 hour play times if that is of interest though. So far I'm not finished with the game yet. Simple puzzles become invisible techniques, longer puzzles become mental challenges that have to be broken apart before being solved, and then those simple puzzles go from an impossibility to an ‘of course!’ Not that it stops the headaches.I'm not finished with the game yet. Evil genius, obviously, but that still counts.Īnd that’s obviously just the first levels. Then there’s the discovery that you can stick your fork into a sausage, but only if something’s behind it. Being able to apply that force from different directions becomes crucial to moving them around. Being able to balance half a sausage over the edge of a map is something you have to learn. Likewise, the presence of the fork sticking out and its effect on the sausage means that something as simple as turning right immediately becomes not just a change of direction, but a puzzle solving component. As a really basic example, how often do you move backwards in a puzzle game rather than turning around? Just to start many of the levels, you have to manoeuvre in front of the little ghostly icons that mark each puzzle onto the map and then back into it. Stephen’s Sausage Roll expects you to pick them up on your own, working in both a logical method and an unusual one. Even The Witness starts by having you master the art of straight lines, with a series of screens showing the grammar of its world. ![]() Generally they start by teaching you the rules. It’s hard because it works in a different way to most puzzle games. That sound you can hear is the ghost of Gordon Ramsay screaming about this production line. These are some rancid looking sausages, even before they start being shoved over grass and mud and dangled over the ocean. It doesn’t even go for a sizzling temptation in the stomach. And then waddling along in its wake, Stephen’s Sausage Roll? A game ever bit as clever and fiendish as any, but content to hide it behind pixels and the silliest name since Tongue of the Fatman. The Witness had years of public development and talk about the language of its puzzles, the subtle meanings to be unlocked, the philosophies and grand designs typically granted to something like a BioShock or some other big-budget game. And yet at the same time, pretty much never has a puzzle game managed to squeeze so much out of such a simple concept. Rarely has a puzzle game’s first level planted its flag so deep into the ground, or been so prepared to rub salt into the wound. Probably the closest he ever got was Ernő’s Sausage Roll, as written on a brown paper bag to stop some bugger stealing his lunch.īut no. ![]() ![]() Professor Rubik never considered this along with his cubes, his clocks and his snake. A simple little puzzle game, with a legacy ranging from Sokeban to The Witness.
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