Portal virtually modified my mind chemistry in 2007. The primary-person puzzle recreation felt like an unattainable magic trick on the time, and few video games launched in its wake have been in a position to outdo it. Now, practically 20 years later, a lone developer has as soon as once more given me that have with the mind-bending He Who Watches.
Developed by Bobby Vanden and printed by puzzle recreation champions Draknek and Mates, He Who Watches takes the core concepts that made Portal really feel one-of-a-kind and applies them to a singular, perspective-shifting idea. It’s difficult, wealthy with secrets and techniques, just a little nauseating, and, certainly, probably the greatest puzzle video games you’ll play in 2026.
With little or no story to information you, He Who Watches places you within the function of an archer exploring a wierd construction crammed with puzzle chambers. You’ll clear rooms to progress to new areas as you seek for glyphs and search out a god-like being trapped someplace inside the house. You might classify it as a 3D Sokoban recreation, a time period used to explain puzzle video games the place you push bins. You’re in a position to seize maintain of bins by firing an arrow at them and transfer them the place they should be, whether or not it is onto switches or out of your path. The premise is easy sufficient: get via the exit door of every room by shifting bins, firing arrows at switches, and doing a little bit of intelligent spatial reasoning. How sophisticated might or not it’s?
Very. The trick in He Who Watches is you can stroll on the partitions and ceiling of every room, flipping gravity to match your orientation. Say you decide up a field whereas standing on the bottom. For those who put it down, it’s going to keep on the bottom — regular! However when you drag it as much as the ceiling and drop it, it’s going to stick up there as a substitute. As you would possibly count on, some actually brain-breaking puzzles type from that premise. As you may additionally count on, operating round each floor of a room in first-person may additionally make you are feeling just a little queasy. It’s a small value to pay for an creative gameplay trick that’s executed with precision, because of tight puzzle design.
What’s particularly spectacular about He Who Watches is that it’s not a one-trick pony. Quite than utilizing its trick as a mere visible gimmick, Vanden threads in a number of ingenious puzzle concepts that play with gravity. Deep in my playthrough, I reached a sequence of chambers constructed round transport beams that push bins alongside a inexperienced, glowing line. I quickly discovered that I might use bins to jam that beam’s trajectory, turning it right into a bridge I might freely stroll over. A number of puzzles later, I discovered that I might do even extra with that device, virtually gaining the power to program machines that push bins the place I would like them to be. The complexity retains constructing steadily till you’ve change into an engineer with out realizing it.
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If that sounds daunting, don’t fear. Vanden appeared to grasp that when designing He Who Watches’ sensible trace system. Each room options an non-compulsory mini-puzzle chamber that’s constructed to show you the core idea of the puzzle you’re on. Say you hit a puzzle the place you’re tasked with crossing a seemingly unattainable hole. That trace room would possibly give you a easy puzzle that reveals you easy methods to get a field throughout a niche. It’s a stroke of genius that solves one of many worst blockades in puzzle video games: Typically you hit a puzzle and simply don’t know what the sport is asking you to do. That’s by no means unclear right here; it’s solely the execution that’s tough.
I’m nonetheless making my means via He Who Watches, taking my time to understand each brainy resolution. Even when a puzzle stumps me for half-hour, I’m nonetheless constantly delighted after I uncover a solution that feels sensically constructed and truthful. Contemplating how briskly I chewed via Portal after I first performed it, I’m going to savor my time with this one. A recreation this creatively euphoric doesn’t come round too typically.
