Order of the Sinking Star Reviews
Order of the Sinking Star might work better had it been a bit more curated in deploying its massive pile of puzzles, but the occasional frustration and overcomplication is an affordable price of admission to play around with so many fun ideas.
Order of the Sinking Star begs to be challenged as much as it challenges you.
Order of the Sinking Star is a puzzler made for the real sickos who could spend hours grinding down one stage. The mechanics remain simple enough to feel accessible, but are expanded upon with commendable creativity.While it doesn't let you experiment to any great degree, it will still leave you feeling like a genius after solving one puzzle before leaving you completely clueless in the next. Not everyone likes that feeling, but I relished it.
Order of the Sinking Star is the most unique puzzle game I’ve ever encountered.
I don't think a game has ever divided my brain in two like Order of the Sinking Star. Its unique structure and the way it blends together so many mechanics is great, the individual puzzles are cleverly and thoughtfully designed, and it's all delivered with plenty of polish.However, in making such a vast game, I think it runs out of steam before it gets the chance to really start to flex. That, combined with uninteresting dialogue and no real compelling hook (other than the promise of hundreds more puzzles), makes it harder to recommend.
Order of the Sinking Star is a wonderful kaleidoscope of puzzles.
Order of the Sinking Star takes a gaming mechanic that has been around as long as gaming and hasn't stopped iterating upon it. A must have for puzzle gamers, but maybe a second guess for the Switch version for right now.
An astonishingly ambitious puzzle adventure packed with ingenious mechanics and some superb brainteasers, although its enormous scale occasionally turns intellectual discovery into something resembling homework.
Order of the Sinking Star is a daunting, all-encompassing puzzle game--one naturally expected from Jonathan Blow. With it comes sparks of brilliance, frustration, and inspiration often in equal measure, constantly testing the brain's ability to overcome.
Order of the Sinking Star is the newest game from Thekla, Inc but are its puzzles enough to keep players engaged, or will they burn them out?
To create Order of the Sinking Star, Thekla licensed four different Sokoban-style games from other developers and wove them into four campaigns forming a colossal, highly ingenious whole. Yet, this unprecedented scale becomes a weak point for both the narrative and the puzzle gameplay experience, as it can feel intimidating, confusing, and overly sprawling. Even so, the game appeals to two distinct audiences: those who want to dedicate hundreds of hours to unraveling every last detail, and those who simply wish to enjoy the puzzles for as long as they feel inclined—without minding that they might only experience a fraction of the game's vast content (which can still mean dozens of hours of gameplay).
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Order of the Sinking Star is a massive puzzle game that comes highly recommended for fans of sequential challenges. The distinct settings of the four nations, combined with unique mechanics that blend together as the adventure unfolds, create a compelling experience that makes it easy to lose track of time. While the audio and subtitles have minor issues that could be fixed in the future, the storytelling could be a bit more direct to avoid disrupting the game's pacing as you progress through the levels.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Order of the Sinking Star is an ambitious experience that rewards those who have the patience to observe, experiment, and think outside the box. The sheer amount of puzzles and a few moments of frustration can be exhausting, but they also make every solution you find on your own even more satisfying. For me, it is a game that shows how sometimes the best reward isn't being given the answer, but having the feeling that you actually managed to figure it out by yourself.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Order of the Sinking Star is the Holy Grail for puzzle game enthusiasts who want a game that truly pushes them to rack their brains and think carefully before making their next move. While its high difficulty and lack of hints may frustrate and drive away some players, if you are looking for a genuine challenge and have plenty of time to spare, you certainly will not be disappointed.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Order of the Sinking Star turns simple rules into a massive challenge that forces you to constantly change your way of thinking. Understanding its mechanics and discovering how they interact is its greatest reward, although its difficulty and scale can be overwhelming. If you enjoy puzzles and have the patience to experiment, this is a highly recommended game.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
I feel that I may have sounded overly harsh when talking about Order of the Sinking Star, but I want to clarify, once more, that as a puzzle game, this is outstanding. It’s a compilation of a seemingly neverending amount of finely crafted gauntlets that will test your skill, attention, and patience. I really have no qualms about its design and concept; I laud Jonathan Blow and his team in this regard. My massive gripes lie with how poorly optimized and buggy the game is, at least at launch, and most notably when testing on Switch 2. The combination of poor framerates, crashes, and bizarre aspect ratio glitches frustrated me to no end.
Order of the Sinking Star remains one of those rare titles that justify their own existence: unique, meticulous, and capable of transforming a niche genre into a monumental experience.
Review in Italian | Read full review
Order of the Sinking Star is a remarkable puzzle game on a scope and scale I haven't seen in the many years I've been playing puzzle games, and it may be too big for its own good, with plenty of positives and negatives to consider.
I’ve only scratched the surface of what Order of the Sinking Star has to offer. By my estimate, I still have around 600 or so puzzles left to discover and solve, many of which have remixed the very premise of the game in some truly surprising ways that I won’t dare spoil. But with several dozen hours of playtime logged, I can safely say that it is, without exaggeration, one of the best puzzle games I’ve ever played, standing toe-to-toe with the genre greats. There are very few games on the market that are this intentional with their design and are unwavering in their dedication to a handful of core principles. For all the moments where I found myself stuck in my tracks or banging my head against a wall, there were many more “AHA!” moments and flashes of insight and realization that made the struggles all the more worth it. Order of the Sinking Star is unparalleled in communicating ideas and concepts without saying a single word, but more impressive is that I feel like I’m having a genuine conversation with it with each puzzle I solve.
Jonathan Blow has always had a talent for making puzzle games that are much more complicated than they first appear. Order of the Sinking Star very much continues that trend, and in many ways feels like the biggest example of it yet.