Developer: Shifting Tides
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Reviewed on: Xbox One X
Code Received.
The Sojourn is a fairly straight forward first person puzzle game that differentiates itself with a fantastic visual style. You move through small puzzle rooms, shifting objects and reality to release a spark of light. The puzzles have a linear progression that slowly sprinkle in new mechanics, mixing them in interesting ways. While there is a story, its limited, vague, and doesn’t really connect at all to the gameplay. The real star of The Sojourn is its peaceful, Zen aesthetic which permeates throughout most of the game.
The Sojourn presents a loose narrative, suggesting that the game is about a person’s journey through life. Most of it is told through static statues of characters interacting with each other. While the statues convey their meaning well enough, there is little to no connection with the actual puzzles and gameplay. Each puzzle may have a title reflecting a moment in one’s journey through life, but the actual format of the puzzle doesn’t reflect on the title. The closest the game gets to linking its gameplay to its themes are in the form of inspirational quotes you’ll unlock through optional bonus puzzles.
Each puzzle room is pretty small and you can typically see all the elements and goal from the starting position. The game’s primary mechanic is to shift your view from reality to what the game calls “the dark world”. While in the dark world you can manipulate a variety of totems, but the catch is that your dark world vision wears out the more you walk around. There are totems that you can swap places with (which doesn’t count towards your dark world vision expenditure), another one that triggers music for a short time, building bridges that you can walk over. You have to mix all the totem’s abilities while managing your dark world vision in order to complete the puzzles. It does a good job of teaching you new mechanics without holding your hand. While I found most of the puzzles to be on the easy side, there were a few that left me scratching my head.
The Sojourn‘s goal is to provide you with a calming, thought provoking journey. It’s gorgeous visuals and minimalist audio presentation accomplish that goal. The simple, yet sometimes mind-bending puzzles also build towards that goal. While I wish the story and gameplay had a more cohesive connection, their disconnect never really got in the way. I appreciated the small respites between puzzle rooms in the form of light story telling. All in all, The Sojourn is a great entry in the first person puzzle genre, and especially good if you are looking for a low-key, stress free experience.
