This is going to be a challenging review to write. How do I back up my claim that Blue Prince is one of the best games ever made, when the reasons why are things I can't speak about? Or better yet, things that you should experience for yourself without a preconception of what they might be.
To put it simply, Blue Prince is a first-person exploration puzzle game that makes use of roguelike and strategy elements to create a very fun gameplay loop where you draft various rooms of a house that all have different traits.
Your objective is to reach the 46th room of an estate that only has 45 rooms. It's a simple premise, and my carefully chosen genre descriptors don't really do justice to what the game ultimately offers – which is a game like nothing I've ever played before.
To shoehorn Blue Prince into a specific genre, or use other games as a comparison, won't really encapsulate what you'll experience when playing it. As someone who loves first-person puzzlers, I can loosely find similarities in Myst, Return of the Obra Dinn, Outer Wilds, The Witness, Tunic and surprisingly even Hades.
If you like any of those games or other games that subvert player expectations then Blue Prince will undoubtedly become your next obsession like it did mine. Even if you didn't click with any of the games I've mentioned, Blue Prince might still be worth trying as it's a different thing entirely.
I don't use the word obsession as a throwaway comment for how much I liked it either. No, I really have become obsessed with this game for the one month I've had it. My playtime is currently sitting at over 200 hours and I'm still discovering new content and experiencing jaw-dropping moments.
What to Read Next
I've apprehensively mentioned my playtime but I don't want it to seem daunting. You definitely don't have to put 200 hours into the game to have an amazing time.
I rolled credits at around 20 hours and could have been completely satisfied with stepping away and leaving it there.
There is, however, a lot of depth to Blue Prince. If you choose to follow every mystery, pull on every thread and explore every secret and curiosity, you will be rewarded with unforgettable moments that blow your mind and leave a lasting impression.
Related: Split Fiction review: It Takes Two developer's new co-op game oozes creativity
One thing that sets Blue Prince apart from other first-person puzzle games is the roguelike elements. The term itself doesn't feel adequate for Blue Prince as it defies genres in a number of ways, but it does capture the gameplay loop of runs being split into days, where each day you start from scratch and start drafting rooms for your house all over again.
You can choose from three randomly selected rooms when building your ever-changing maze of a mansion. Each room is linked by doorways that need to be connected up or you could find yourself at a dead end.
There's a system that gives you limited steps and crossing into a room will lower it by one, with the day ending when you reach zero steps. The strategy element comes in when you have to juggle steps with resources like keys to open doors, gems to draft better rooms and gold currency to buy useful tools and items at the various shop rooms.
A lot of variables can affect runs like specific rooms having beneficial or negative effects, or items like hammers and metal detectors that can be found and used to interact with the world around you. There's so many more I won't mention so you can experience discovering them for yourself, but all these systems work together flawlessly to create that "one more run" feeling every time you play.
Blue Prince has been in development for eight years from indie studio Dogubomb and founder Tonda Ros. The passion put into the game is immediately obvious with its unprecedented attention to detail.
Everything feels like it has a purpose, every detail intentional, every choice a conscious one. It's commendable that even after so many hours invested I'm still finding new mysteries to follow, whether it's a deep-dive into the game's lore of disappearing people and political intrigue, or something as simple as executing a run in a way I didn't think was achievable.
Every time I think I've reached the peak of what's possible, I discover something new that sends me down a rabbit hole full of intrigue and meaningful payoffs.
At 40 hours, something I've been staring at since the start finally made sense to me. At 60 hours, I found out how to reach somewhere I wasn't even sure existed. At 100 hours, something I've been walking past every day since the beginning actually had purpose. At 200 hours, I discovered I could use an item in a way I never anticipated.
That's the kind of game Blue Prince is. As you navigate the shifting halls of a house of your own creation, it's easy to get lost in the seamless blend of mystery, exploration and puzzling as the game's beautiful soundtrack naturally envelopes the rich world you're uncovering.
Related: The 30 best games of 2024
Almost every run in Blue Prince feels meaningful. Even if I haven't been successful in what I originally set out to do during a day, I feel like I've always learned something, found a new clue or have gained useful knowledge I can apply to future sessions.
I'm currently at 50+ pages of notes in my notebook, hundreds of screenshots and camera photos, and countless Discord messages to other press gushing over the game's insane level of depth and creativity.
Again, I can understand that reading the amount of time and effort I've committed to it can come across overwhelming. In the moment, though, it doesn't feel like effort. It feels like a testament to how good it is that you want to do all those things, and actually enjoy doing them.
I've been purposefully vague in this review because Blue Prince needs to be experienced without any preconceptions of what you're getting into. It's truly a game that rewards as much as you put in, with puzzle solutions never feeling unfair, but instead have me kicking myself for not thinking of them sooner.
Even now as I finish this review, I'm reeling from a game-changing moment I've just unearthed that felt cathartically satisfying to crack, and Blue Prince is full of these moments. It's nothing short of a genius puzzle playground of endless discoveries and possibilities.
Blue Prince is a special game full of mysteries, secrets and mind-blowing moments with an addictive gameplay loop. It's so good that labelling this as one of the best puzzle games of all time feels like a disservice. Instead, it's possibly the most memorable experience I've ever had playing a game and I can't stop thinking about it.
Platform reviewed on: PC
Blue Prince is out April 10 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC and is also available day one on PlayStation Plus Premium and Xbox Game Pass.
