Lorelei and the Laser Eyes

Steam Reviews

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• Recommended Posted November 19, 2025 on Steam It's... like someone took all the combat out of Silent Hill and poured more insanity in. It's like when you wished Resident Evil didn't have zombie dogs but only good boys you can pet. It's like a Giallo film about making Giallo movies. It's Alfred Hitchcock's take on Eraserhead. Or maybe it's David Lynch's take on Hitchcock's biopic? One way or another, Italian and French avant garde cinema with weird camera angles, word salad dialogue pretending to be deeply philosophical were clearly a major influence on this game. You play as Lorelei, a German sculptor/artist/computer graphics enthusiast, who arrives to a remote maybe-Swiss-maybe-Belgian mountain hotel on invitation from her maybe-friend Renzo Nero, renowned Italian filmmaker, of the sort that when you ask what movies he's made, and he names a few, you go "Oh. THOSE kind of movies". (It's not porn, it's just philosophizing while someone gets gruesomely disfigured) The hotel is mostly empty, Renzo is locked in his room working, and you have to figure out why he sends you on weird errands around the place to prepare the allegedly haunted hotel for the movie shoot and why so many of the things you find and read are ABOUT Lorelei, Renzo and their careers? And then it gets progressively weirder, with shifting camera styles (fixed-overview at the start makes way for overhead, for over-the-shoulder, for a short bit of first-person, for deliberate PS1 visual throwback and so on and on and on), wacky dance numbers, sad romantic songs and lots and lots of anachronisms. At its driest, LATLE is a puzzle collection loosely tied together with a plot, kind of like the old Sierra classics - Shivers, Castle of Dr Brain, you know the sort. You solve a puzzle to get a key to a door or a hint to a puzzle on another door, beyond which are new books to read and puzzles to solve using stuff you've read elsewhere. You slowly accumulate a stack of items that are either keys or key-analogues and fill up your Photographic Memory with the contents of books and notes and photos and what have you which you will need to regularly consult to solve more puzzles. It's been a long long while since I had a good puzzler that makes me want to reach for a piece of paper to figure a puzzle out even once. On this game, I spent six sheets of A4 paper, filled both sides. Let's be honest: it's HARD. But it's also very very FAIR. Almost every puzzle has a legitimate chain of logic behind it, AND most of them are randomized between playthroughs (the corresponding reference books shift, date-based puzzles shift dates around, etc) so you wouldn't be able to just rush it through with a walkthru. And it's just three Swedish dudes doing most of the lifting. AMAZING.
• Recommended Posted February 7, 2026 on Steam You know who really deserves a puzzle game? Librarians. So I’m glad Loreli and the Laser Eyes came thru with its document and math based puzzles. Do you like solving math riddles and combing thru a binder of documents to answer a question? Because if you do then about 70% of this game was made just for you. As for the other 30% I’m afraid you’ll have to put up with some of the most visually and mechanically dazzling puzzles you’ve ever encountered on top of the incredibly dreamlike noir the rest of the game is already glazed in. I kid, Yes, Loreli and the Laser Eyes might be one of the most unique looking games I’ve ever played and its story is not only deep but told in such a dramatic and novel way it really takes a whole playthru just to grasp the general outline. It's genuinely beautiful in ways that transcend just the aesthetic and I think it worth a shot if you are even casually interested. However it's not without faults and my little jab has some true feelings behind it. There are a lot of puzzles that just rely on the documents and information provided without giving them a very strong foundation in the world. Mostly the math puzzles. I actually do like the document system. Every image or piece of text you see is saved to your photographic memory. And while you may think this is to prevent you from needing to take notes, it really just cuts down on redundancy. This would be a triple digit hour long game for masochists that hate their wrists if these texts were not saved for you, I still ended up with 6 pages of handwritten notes. Now before you go thinking that's impressive let me hit you with this. I looked up plenty of puzzle solutions in this game. I have no shame about that. In fact one of my major complaints is that its actually pretty difficult to look up puzzle solutions because the solutions are all randomized every playthur and some puzzles don’t even appear in the same place. I’m going to give the creator the benefit of the doubt and assume that this was done to make replayability more viable. However it's not as if this is a metroidbrainia. Its a little non linear but you still need to see all aspects of the game to get to the ending. So I don’t think the randomisation was necessary to make replaying worth it, and if the randomisation was just in there to make looking things up harder *clears through* F&*k you. That is completely asinine and just outright hostile to the player. There is no hint or skip system so the only way around a puzzle is thru it. I’m not sad I had to look things up because that's how I enjoy these games. The puzzles are a lot like knots, you have a lot of threads to pull at when you start but you eventually hit a point you just have to figure out, but when you do a lot more threads and paths become available to you. I would’ve missed so many of my favorite moments if I just had to suffer at the 4 or 5 parts I got really stuck on. Honestly I think the game is only this low because the ending was one of those things. Its a puzzle that you build up thru the whole game but when clearing it there is no way to determine what part you are doing incorrectly. It's hard to look up and it's hard to check and if it weren't for my stubbornness and some people willing to go thru my steps on a reddit post I never would have beat the game. It’s a one of a kind experience both visually and narratively but its not a puzzle experience I would feel the need to return to.
• Not recommended Posted February 18, 2026 on Steam Lorelei is a great piece of art, but a frustrating puzzle game. At its high points, the noir style was slick, I shouted "Eureka!" when solving puzzles and it felt like there was a much deeper meaning that I was chasing. At its low points I felt like the game was actively trying to push me away by being maliciously obtuse. What started as a highly enjoyable game devolved into a slog halfway through as I had 50+ different puzzles before me, a glossary of 100+ documents full of random information and absolutely no clue which puzzles were actually solvable. My greatest frustration with Lorelei is its extremely unclear whether a puzzle has a solution right there in the room with you, whether it has its solution in another room, or whether the solution is dependent on solving 10 other puzzles you haven't solved yet. I found myself wandering aimlessly for hours before consulting a hint guide online just to figure out where I should even be trying to apply my efforts. On top of that, the game will present to you many puzzles where the solution has to be input in a very particular manner. There were multiple times where I had solved a puzzle, but when I went to enter the solution, the game rejected it leaving me completely baffled. Turns out there can often be multiple ways of making a solution that looks correct and should be accepted, but the game does not account it. There are also game design choices that feel like needless frustration such as there being no "back" button. Why can't I hit "B" to back out of 4 levels of menus? Why do I have to always arrow over a bunch of times in my inventory back to the top left "X" just to close it? It feels like the designers took inspiration from PS1 games for Lorelei, but they also brought back some bad user interfaces as well. I know this sounds like I despised the game, but there were plenty of moments that it hooked me which makes it all the more frustrating. I was having a great time with the game 40% of the time, but the other 60% tested my patience and by the end I was heavily using online hint guides because the puzzle solving was no longer interesting and I simply wanted to see where this was all going. Unfortunately as the credits rolled, I didn't feel a deep sense of satisfaction, but rather questioned what was the point of it all. Maybe that was the point which is why I think it's a great piece of art, but not a great puzzle game. If you love being absolutely lost in a sea of confusion while you scribble strange runes on a notepad, you might love this game. As for me, I appreciated the art and even contemplated philosophical ideas of time, the stories we create and how the observer aids in the creation of art... but as a puzzle game, Lorelei was not for me.
• Recommended Posted March 7, 2026 on Steam [i]There's a lighthouse in the middle of Prussia A white house in a red square…[/i] (The Sisters of Mercy – Dominion / Mother Russia) If ever there was a puzzle game that deserves the label [i]Lynchian[/i], this is pretty much it. A game that is simply art, that doesn’t want nor need to be fully understood. A mystery at its (wild) heart, that is so compelling, it needs no final ultimate “resolution”. Media like this is always a bit difficult to approach. What does it all mean? What is it about? Well, Lorelei and the Laser Eyes simply [i]is[/i]. The first one or two hours of the game were a weird and sometimes frustrating experience. I stumbled through seemingly endless hallways with a myriad of doors leading to a million different rooms filled with an infinity of puzzles, none of which I knew how to even approach. I solved a couple of shortcut puzzles (puzzles you need to solve in order to open a shortcut… duh) and a few minor side-puzzles but for the most part, I was just walking around in this huge mansion… aimlessly, without guidance or purpose, just… walking. I look back on these first hours and I realize something or rather, a couple of things: 1. I was just very unlucky. There is a de facto “main-path” that guides you through the main stages of the game and I just missed it. 2. I solved many more puzzles than I had any right to, meaning it’s a near miracle I solved anything at all given the little information about the world of the game I had at the time. 3. These first hours were actually pretty helpful in establishing the setting, the vibe and overall puzzle design of the game. They also helped me remember the layout of the mansion which would come in handy later on. Once I found my way to the main path again, things started picking up speed and I finally, successively started to understand what this game was about and why it is so beloved by so many people. Visuals, sound design, textures, lighting, character design, everything in Lorelei and the Laser Eyes comes together beautifully and hereby creates a unique vibe that is at the same time minimalist and modern but also eerie and mysterious. The grey of the environment mixed with a dark black and a starkly contrasting neon purple with pink variances just looks incredibly cool. Everything has a 1960s retro-futurist feel with a touch of Eastern Germany / Soviet charm and there is simply no other game that nails this combination so well. All is bathed in either ghostly sounding background music, erratic distortions or complete silence, depending on the mood a certain scene or location demands. All that is to say that the audiovisual design of this is on-point. Considering that we are talking about the people that gave us the flashy and stylish musical experience [i]Sayonara Wild Hearts[/i], that shouldn’t be much of a surprise. But what about the core of the matter in a puzzle game - the puzzle design? Well, this may be the cleverest puzzle game I have played thus far. My experience is limited of course. I’m just saying that Lorelei had some real brain-teasers. Mathematics, perspective, translation, attention - the pool from which these puzzles are drawn is varied and wide. Rarely do you get to use the same “tactics” twice. Thinking outside the box is pretty much the standard with which you have to approach this game which is funny because there literally is a rather extensive box-related puzzle. Since it is even recommended by the game itself, let me emphasize that you really should take notes outside of the game. Lorelei saves any crucial information on her own for you to look up later but you really do have to work out these solutions by yourself and a notebook helps a lot here. Sitting on a couch with a friend or spouse while one is playing and the other is taking notes is a really cool and bonding experience, I can vouch for that. Discussing puzzle solutions and plot theories together is a lot of fun too, highly recommended! [i]The more unknowable the mystery, the more beautiful it is.[/i] (David Lynch) Now, speaking of the story, is it a good one? That depends on how you enjoy stories being told. In my introductory statement, I referenced David Lynch and how this game really feels like a work of art strongly inspired by him. This also applies to Lynchian storytelling, which often relies on images, sounds, lights, a certain mood being transported via the cinematography. It’s less about words and a coherent plot you can easily follow. There is mystery here, there is room for interpretation and thus, the viewer, or in this case the player, becomes part of the storytelling as well. Lorelei is not as esoteric or murky as most of Lynch’s work. There is a somewhat easy-to-follow plot here that appears pretty plausible in the end but for the majority of the game, you will have questions and things will appear strange, dreamy, sometimes contradictory. Even when the big mystery is solved, you can still take things a certain way or refuse to. It’s cool how certain supernatural elements or allusions to the occult remain up to interpretation in the end. I think we get the best of both worlds here - a scenario that invites open interpretation and inference of meaning while also telling a story that is resolved in a straight way making it very clear what happened at the core of it all. What I love most about Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is that it’s a game that feels like a celebration of art in all its various forms. Within the game, you interact with movies, theater plays, dance, literature, music and yes, videogames too. Even the artistic side of the natural sciences is addressed here. At the same time, the game also covers the ugly side of art too, the eccentricity and egomania that sometimes come along with it. A hybris that can lead to madness. And it that sense, and I know I’m being a bit cryptic here but maybe you understand when you finish the game, it can also be seen as a sort-of liberation of art from its often-male, often-exploitative masters. The bizarre and maybe even antithetical relationship between art and money is talked about a lot in this game too, the [i]Mammon[/i] an ever-present threat but also benefactor or at least enabler at the same time. As someone with a deep appreciation for art in all its forms, this game feels like it was designed by people who get it, who feel the same way, the anti-Trumps, the anti-capitalist, anti-genAI, progressive leftists or whatever you wanna call us. I felt understood here. Two things made the experience less than perfect so I want to cover them briefly. The first thing is that there are a number of “interrogation scenes” that play out like a round of memory where you have to internalize a 3D scene with different actors, props, their physical relation to each other and so on. Those get really stale after the third time or so. For some reason, I had 4 or 5 of these scenes in close succession and it really got on my nerves a bit. The second complaint I would like to bring up is the way this game handles game-over states. There are hard ends of the game and when you reach them, you have to load a save you manually created before. You can only save at distinct computer terminals and so, occasionally, I lost some progress. My worst case was losing like half an hour of progress and I did not feel like it was deserved or that the game properly informed me of the potentially lethal consequences that my actions would have. Anyway, these are just nitpicks and you can ignore them. Lorelei and the Laser Eyes is a phenomenal puzzle game with a clear creative vision both in audiovisual presentation and writing. It’s a deeply artful game with a lot of love for its medium but also other art forms that inspired it. It’s eerie, weird and mysterious, sometimes even spooky. It’s also personal and tragic. Ultimately, a game about creation and the beauty of it - creation of art, magic, myth and truth.
• Not recommended Posted June 25, 2025 on Steam This non-recommendation is very lukewarm. In short - the game suffers from what I'd call "The Witness Syndrome" - the presentation is pleasing but the puzzles might as well be published on a piece of paper. The game is nicely stylized, uses interesting way of narrating the story etc. The photographic memory section and the map section are great additions to make the game playable without taking a million screenshots. Also having a journal of tasks is nice - even if there is barely any information - some way of adding custom notes would be great. --- However, there are flaws that make this game not enjoyable. More specifically there are 2 issues: smaller one is the controls (menu navigation reusing buttons in a weird way, no searching in the memories, pretty much controller centric etc. - you get used to it), the major one is however the puzzles. The main features of a puzzle are 1) having all required pieces, 2) theorizing a solution and then 3) applying the theory. The reward is in finding a solution for a new type of a task. Puzzle is not fun if it hides pieces required for the solution, if there are multiple solutions that feel equivalent but only one is applicable and lastly, if the solution is obvious but actually performing it (i.e. mechanically solving the puzzle) is cumbersome. Puzzle is also not fun if it repeats or if you are told a solution that you then have to perform (not talking about signposting here). Lorelei violates all of these with impunity at different places, let's go with some examples: [spoiler] Shortcut door puzzles feel like a filler - solve a simiple puzzle from a book, punch in a number. Yawn. Initial tasks - collect a letter/note with underlined text - solve the same-ish task 5 times where you take a random number and that is a code to crack a safe. Magic ball - walk to place A, find a note with phone number, walk to place B, get instructions, walk to place A, punch in instructions. That's not even a puzzle. There's nothing to solve. Walk around the whole black and white place - not noticing a lamp you can turn up to open a secret door. Nothing pointing to that being a thing. Having to click through supercomputer solution knowing that you don't have all the info just to get more info about what are you supposed to collect. There is also a consistency violation where you start with having all the clues in the same room as the puzzle, which then disappears but not for all the puzzles and you can't really tell when it's the case. [/spoiler] Anyway, point being is that it falls out of the flow zone too often - instead of puzzle/story/puzzle/story (or puzzle, exploration, story) you go from puzzle to being lost and looking for a thing you missed somewhere because you can't progress and the routine is at least broken up by the (albeit repetitive) [spoiler]remember the scene[/spoiler] parts. I am fine with some amount of moon logic. It's rather on theme for the game. I am ok with combination locks and the whole escape room feeling but at some point it just does not work well together for this one.
• Recommended Posted January 4, 2026 on Steam This game starts out like someone dumped a complicated Lego set out on the floor, and then threw away both the box and the manual without you having had a glimpse of either. Deliberately confusing at outset, the story layers into deeper meaning as you familiarize yourself with the hotel. LatLE is a very well-written puzzle game that rewards your curiosity by telling you a unique story. The game is in black and white (and red), yet it oozes atmosphere and style with only those three color options. The soundtrack contributes further to the impeccable vibes, which really makes it a complete package. You will need to take notes in some capacity, and your first hour in the hotel will make you feel quite lost. Don't hesitate to explore and come back to something later. Another reviewer, Noelemahc, opened their review saying that it's Silent Hill without combat and more insanity. That line clinched this purchase for me, and I absolutely agree with that premise. The good: 1) Puzzle Difficulty: The puzzles are not overly difficult, and they are rewarding to solve. There aren't any segments that require outside knowledge that can't be found in the game: for example, Roman numerals feature in some of the puzzles, but there is a book within the game that explains them. This game is puzzle first, exploration second - if you don't enjoy puzzles, you likely won't enjoy this. 8) The Story: this game is a mystery to unravel, and it is uniquely told. There's much I could say, but it is one that is amplified by not spoiling any parts for yourself. 4) Art direction: Great soundtrack, cool and often spooky art style, and it accomplishes great things with just black, white, and red. Phonographs throughout the hotel allow you to enable the music if you like, or disable it. 7) Objectives, not handholding: The game trusts you to know what you need to do. If you get stuck on a puzzle or lost in the hotel, your character has a photographic memory that allows you to re-access almost everything important in the game. Your built-in memory and your "Mental Notes" menu options allow you to get back on track. It allows you to go at your own pace, one mechanic notwithstanding, and you can take in the sights and really piece everything together on your time. 2) Much of the content in this game is soft-randomized in that the mechanics can show up in different places, so you have to know what's going on; fortunately, this game highlights much of the important data in red. If you are a gamer that looks stuff up often, relying on internet guides for this game will only get you so far. 3) Renzo's quotes are amazing. "Raindrops fall on man and hedgehog alike." "When your horse barks, one has made a mistake." "We are the penguins with all the luck." 5) Retro nods: This game features historical gaming segments (curse you, tank controls) that add to the story. There's even three optional minigames, also with their own style. 6) Obligatory "You can pet the dog." Two incredibly minor quibbles that I wish I knew going in: 1) The game stresses the importance of your money: it is important, but you can afford everything if you find every dollar in the game. My initial impressions from the game were that you couldn't afford everything, so I hoarded until the last minute needlessly. Ultimately, money goes towards 100% completion, but there is one purchase with a mechanical advantage worth getting as early as able: don't empty your wallet immediately. 2) 100% completion of the achievements includes a speedrun. I was initially turned off by this, but after playing the game through to completion I immediately went in for the speedrun. I completed it with a 4hr 58m timer and got the achievement, though I don't know what the hard limit on time is. Pausing the game stops the timer, which is helpful for organizing your thoughts and planning where to go next. One thing that's not a quibble, but worth mentioning nonetheless - there is only one input button and directional inputs. There are no back or forward buttons, just "button." The game was designed with making veteran gamers and novices on the same playing field, and by removing extra buttons the game behaves the same for everyone. Some reviewers find this frustrating, and I'd agree with that at times, but it at least makes *some* sense, as the in-game console and handheld both also only feature a single button. In short, if you are a fan of puzzle exploration games with a story, like "The Witness" and "The Return of the Obra Dinn," and to a lesser extent "Immortality," and "The Case of the Golden Idol," don't miss this.