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This is the first entry in the nascent mystery/deduction genre that may have more to criticize than praise, even if mostly due to wasted potential.

Whether it belongs in the genre at all is up for debate actually, as the threshold for revealing the glyph meanings is so low that your progress is most often gated by what you’ve physically encountered, rather than anything going on in your head.

This is especially apparent in the first section, which functions as an extended tutorial. It’s only the third section which really stands out as living up to the potential of the language-translation mechanic. Here, the game starts to experiment with novel linguistic structures, and scatters the clues more evenly throughout the level to force the player to self-direct a bit. Curiously though, the game retreats from pushing the boundaries on the mechanics after this stage.

It is worth praising the game for avoiding any major leaps in logic and remaining accessible to most players while not completely trivializing the gameplay (for the middle sections, at least). I’m sure the linguistic focus will attract many, and the game really does shine when that is front and center.

Unfortunately, many of the puzzles outside of solving glyphs follow the Myst formula of go somewhere, see puzzle, go somewhere else, see solution to puzzle, and go back and solve puzzle. The game also features an array of minigames and stealth sections which would be a welcome diversion from the main gameplay loop if they were any fun. The diversity of environments and designs does breathe some life into what would otherwise be a somewhat stale new-agey art game, complete with large, sparse screens and never-fast-enough walking speeds.

Plot-wise, the game also has a spark of ingenuity in the early-to-middle section. The introduction of new languages brings with it hints of each class having wildly different understandings of the world they inhabit. Some of the reveals in the early worlds were genuinely shocking and wonderfully executed in a way that felt internally consistent. Unfortunately, after the third section, the game sheds its focus on the conflicting worldviews and lifestyles of the classes and shifts towards a more generic mission for all inhabitants of the tower to unite against some vague malevolent entity.

All told, the core concept and many aspects of the execution are so strong that I would still recommend the game to fans of the genre or anyone interested in translation puzzles more generally.

3/5