He Who Watches is the best puzzle game of the year

The media could not be loaded, either because the server or network failed or because the format is not supported. I'm a huge fan of first-person puzzlers, with games like The Talos Principle and Blue Prince being two of my favourite games of all time – and the list could honestly go on further, with releases like Antichamber, Manifold Garden, Standpoint and Viewfinder all being experiences I remember fondly. It's safe to say that I have an interest in the first-person puzzle genre, so when I had the chance to play He Who Watches, I was excited to dive into a new title in this line of games. Further to this, solo developer Bobby Vanden cites Tunic, Animal Well and Fez as inspirations, which caught my attention as they're all games with incredible depth and layered secrets. With all this in mind, I knew going in that He Who Watches had the potential to be a standout game in the genre if it delivered on its premise of being a gravity-defying, mind-bending puzzle game with deeper mysteries to uncover – and I'm pleased to say it delivers tenfold. Draknek & Friends He Who Watches has you walking on walls and manipulating gravity to solve contained puzzle rooms. Your movement is grid-based allowing you to easily and clearly navigate Sokoban-like architecture, with your perspective shifting if you move to an adjacent wall or roof tile. You're armed with a bow, not for combat but to use as a tool to move, pull, push and carry blocks from any distance with the attached magical arrow. It can be used to manipulate the environment, switch the directional gravity of blocks, open doors, activate switches and pull yourself across gaps to reach the goal. The fundamentals can look overwhelming at a glance, but in practice it works remarkably well and is relatively easy to process once you're in the game doing it yourself. What to Read Next As with most games of this type, the puzzles start off pretty simple but become more complex as you progress. What starts as simply moving and joining cubes together escalates to the inclusion of other puzzle elements such as elevator-like moving platforms and blocks that generate pathways. The things He Who Watches has you doing with its toolset will honestly blow your mind. It can be hard to comprehend that you can do so much with just a few blocks and gravity. What starts as dropping cubes on to switches evolves into building contraptions to reach unfathomable distances. It really does evoke that 'aha' moment you see in games like Stephen's Sausage Roll or the fantastic A Monster's Expedition from He Who Watches publisher Draknek & Friends, where you realise the tools you've been using all along can be utilised in a completely unexpected way. Draknek & Friends What's commendable about the puzzle rooms in He Who Watches is that the solution itself can be typically executed in less than a minute if you know exactly what you want to do. Working out that solution can definitely take some time, but it's a relief that testing things doesn't take too much setup in most cases. The game allows you to instantly undo past moves with a button press, and you can go back as far as you like too, allowing you to retry pivotal setup moments if you need to make slight adjustments. He Who Watches also makes use of a guide room in every puzzle chamber that acts as the in-game hint system. There's one in literally every puzzle and it helps you understand the practicality of what the game is asking for in the current area. It's honestly unprecedented to see a unique playable hint system nestled within the game itself, and it pays off, not only in its usefulness but as a cool overarching addition to the game's meta systems. Draknek & Friends Related: This mystery horror game is worth your time While the puzzle rooms are fantastic on their own, it's the game's world and meta-puzzles that really shine in He Who Watches. The ancient labyrinth you're exploring is full of cryptic symbols, environmental curiosities and discoveries that don't make much sense at first. The game is made of individual hubs called chambers that contain a set number of puzzle rooms within it. Each chamber is unique in appearance and mechanics and is usually home to a newly introduced gimmick. The hub areas themselves are playgrounds full of secrets and unreachable areas that often have you solving environmental puzzles to obtain some of the game's hidden wonders. Think of The Talos Principle's stars that require some out-of-the-box thinking to acquire, and that scratches the surface of the mysteries within He Who Watches. The length of He Who Watches will vary from person to person, but I'm at around 50 hours played at the time of writing this. It's definitely not a short game if you want to do everything, but credits can be achieved much earlier if you don't go for 100% completion or engage with the plethora of obscure unknowns lying in the nooks and crannies. Draknek & Friends While progressing through the game, I felt like I was seeing ambiguous things in the world that I had no clue how to reach or interact with for a good chunk of time. It was easy to just keep playing and hope that the game would eventually reveal what they meant. However, this game rewards curiosity and paying attention to the environment. It was a long time before something finally clicked for me, but once I figured out one element of the meta-puzzles, everything started falling into place. Everything I had walked past, ignored or misunderstood throughout the game finally started to make sense and unveil its meaning. At this point, the game blew wide open, and being able to re-visit once-frustrating obstacles and correctly execute a theory is one of the best feelings in the world. Draknek & Friends I obviously don't want to spoil the game, but if you've played the aforementioned Tunic or Animal Well then you'll have an idea of what's possible in He Who Watches. I'd recommend not using guides – especially outside of puzzle rooms – for the game's deeper secrets, as its mind-blowing moments are worth experiencing first-hand. Even if some of the puzzles are challenging and can feel like a chore at times, the amount of work gone into creating them and how good they are is very respectable and admirable. He Who Watches is a game with a clear vision and executes on it perfectly, and I'm not sure what more could have been done to improve what's already here. He Who Watches is a wonderful game full of genius puzzles, interesting mechanics and deeply rewarding and satisfying secrets. My jaw has dropped countless times during my time with the game, and I can't recommend this year's best puzzle game enough to those who want to invest in uncovering its many layers. ‏‏‎ ‎ He Who Watches is out now on PC via Steam and itch.io.