Review: Blue Prince Reigns as Puzzle Game Royalty

I was about 10 hours into Blue Prince, a roguelike puzzle game where you plan the layout of a manor house, when my partner said to me “Oh Blue Prince, like blueprints.” This was the first time that the pun had occurred to me. Having realizations like this over and over again is at the core of the game. You will feel both the smartest and dumbest that you ever have in your life. Your uncle has died, leaving you his mysterious manor house where the floorplan changes every day. The catch is that you can’t claim ownership over the expansive mansion until you find the hidden room 46. You spend your days drafting rooms and trying to figure out the motions that will guide you towards your goal. Very little carries over between each day in-game. Instead, your main form of progression is the knowledge you gain during your runs. Image via Dogubomb Like all roguelikes, luck plays a huge factor in what you will experience as you play. While everyone has the possibility of drafting the same rooms, or finding the same items, it’s very unlikely that two playthroughs will look alike. I cannot overstate just how many puzzles are in this game. They drip from every inch of the walls. Puzzles can be short, sweet, and contained within a single room, or meta ones that you’ve walked past a hundred times, that take over the whole property. This means that you are constantly pulling on different threads, with many different goals in mind and rooms you hope to draft. When you’re stuck, you only need to draft a room you’ve never seen before to discover a whole new type of puzzle you didn’t know existed. However, the sheer number of options and luck involved is both Blue Prince’s greatest strength and weakness. While every run can be different, sometimes you won’t draft the combination of rooms you think unravel the sweater you’re currently pulling on for a long time. For example, I had a number of meta puzzles I was working on, but all of them required a certain room to appear alongside varying combinations of items. I either needed to find these combinations, or draft a new room in order to feel any sense of progression. However, I didn’t see the room I wanted, or indeed a room I’d never seen before, for the next five runs. This was very frustrating, as was a previous run of four days where I only drafted rooms with dead ends. Both times I put the game down and picked it up the next day with renewed vigor, but it still left a nasty taste. Image via Dogubomb Speaking of which, I cannot write this without mentioning what happened after I reached room 46. Without spoilers, it took me around 40 hours to find the room, know how to open it, and be lucky enough to draft rooms that open the path there. You can definitely do it faster than this, but I was also enraptured by the many puzzles you discover along the way. I opened the door only to be greeted with a black screen. The screen didn’t change. I waited and waited, and when I restarted the game the day’s progress had disappeared. It appears that I got unlucky, and this almost certainly won’t be your experience if you play Blue Prince. However, luck is such an essential part of gameplay that it will likely affect how you feel about it. It’s a game you have to give second, third, and fourth chances to, because your first experiences might not be that favorable. It’s by pushing through and digging into the meat that you begin to get a taste for what Blue Prince is about, and that meat is truly delicious. Image via Dogubomb Room 46 will always be in the back of your mind, but the more you find out about the house, the more questions you have. Those answers lead to more questions, and a change in your fundamental understanding of how the game works. It is extremely difficult to write about how good it is without spoiling anything, but Blue Prince not only has the greatest puzzles of any game I’ve ever played, but it’s the greatest puzzle game I’ve ever experienced. Blue Prince will break you, but sometimes it’s nice to be broken. Just like the blueprints pun my partner had to point out to me, there is something beautiful about finding the solution to something that was right in front of you the whole time. It’s clear that some technical aspects like the rate of room or items drops, and crashes need to be fixed. However, in terms of draftsmanship, Blue Prince stands unrivaled. Blue Prince launches on April 10, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam. The post Review: Blue Prince Reigns as Puzzle Game Royalty appeared first on Siliconera.

Apr 8, 2025 - 14:16

Review: Blue Prince Reigns as Puzzle Game Royalty

I was about 10 hours into Blue Prince, a roguelike puzzle game where you plan the layout of a manor house, when my partner said to me “Oh Blue Prince, like blueprints.” This was the first time that the pun had occurred to me. Having realizations like this over and over again is at the core of the game. You will feel both the smartest and dumbest that you ever have in your life.

Your uncle has died, leaving you his mysterious manor house where the floorplan changes every day. The catch is that you can’t claim ownership over the expansive mansion until you find the hidden room 46. You spend your days drafting rooms and trying to figure out the motions that will guide you towards your goal. Very little carries over between each day in-game. Instead, your main form of progression is the knowledge you gain during your runs.

Like all roguelikes, luck plays a huge factor in what you will experience as you play. While everyone has the possibility of drafting the same rooms, or finding the same items, it’s very unlikely that two playthroughs will look alike. I cannot overstate just how many puzzles are in this game. They drip from every inch of the walls. Puzzles can be short, sweet, and contained within a single room, or meta ones that you’ve walked past a hundred times, that take over the whole property.

This means that you are constantly pulling on different threads, with many different goals in mind and rooms you hope to draft. When you’re stuck, you only need to draft a room you’ve never seen before to discover a whole new type of puzzle you didn’t know existed. However, the sheer number of options and luck involved is both Blue Prince’s greatest strength and weakness. While every run can be different, sometimes you won’t draft the combination of rooms you think unravel the sweater you’re currently pulling on for a long time.

For example, I had a number of meta puzzles I was working on, but all of them required a certain room to appear alongside varying combinations of items. I either needed to find these combinations, or draft a new room in order to feel any sense of progression. However, I didn’t see the room I wanted, or indeed a room I’d never seen before, for the next five runs. This was very frustrating, as was a previous run of four days where I only drafted rooms with dead ends. Both times I put the game down and picked it up the next day with renewed vigor, but it still left a nasty taste.

Speaking of which, I cannot write this without mentioning what happened after I reached room 46. Without spoilers, it took me around 40 hours to find the room, know how to open it, and be lucky enough to draft rooms that open the path there. You can definitely do it faster than this, but I was also enraptured by the many puzzles you discover along the way. I opened the door only to be greeted with a black screen. The screen didn’t change. I waited and waited, and when I restarted the game the day’s progress had disappeared.

It appears that I got unlucky, and this almost certainly won’t be your experience if you play Blue Prince. However, luck is such an essential part of gameplay that it will likely affect how you feel about it. It’s a game you have to give second, third, and fourth chances to, because your first experiences might not be that favorable. It’s by pushing through and digging into the meat that you begin to get a taste for what Blue Prince is about, and that meat is truly delicious.

Blue Prince is an upcoming puzzle roguelike, where you must unlock the hidden room 46 in order to earn your inheritance. — Image via Dogubomb

Room 46 will always be in the back of your mind, but the more you find out about the house, the more questions you have. Those answers lead to more questions, and a change in your fundamental understanding of how the game works. It is extremely difficult to write about how good it is without spoiling anything, but Blue Prince not only has the greatest puzzles of any game I’ve ever played, but it’s the greatest puzzle game I’ve ever experienced.

Blue Prince will break you, but sometimes it’s nice to be broken. Just like the blueprints pun my partner had to point out to me, there is something beautiful about finding the solution to something that was right in front of you the whole time. It’s clear that some technical aspects like the rate of room or items drops, and crashes need to be fixed. However, in terms of draftsmanship, Blue Prince stands unrivaled.

Blue Prince launches on April 10, 2025, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC via Steam.

The post Review: Blue Prince Reigns as Puzzle Game Royalty appeared first on Siliconera.