Order of the Sinking Star Reviews
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.
For puzzle fans, Order of the Sinking Star brings together variety, good ideas, and combinations that keep its huge amount of content interesting for much longer than the number on the box would suggest.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Order of the Sinking Star is a puzzle game that demands a lot from its players, but also rewards them in return.
Review in Dutch | Read full review