Genius or madness? Order of the Sinking Star review
Order of the Sinking Star is pure puzzle perfection: easy to understand, but at times brutally difficult to solve. And it’s been my obsession for several weeks now.
Some games just can’t be described – you have to experience them for yourself. Outer Wilds. Blue Prince. Return of the Obra Dinn. And now, Order of the Sinking Star (OSS for short). It’s been my singular obsession for weeks. Not the healthiest habit, since I rarely think of anything other than the next few mysteries. A simple puzzler, drawing me in deeper and deeper and not letting me go. It haunts me in my sleep, keeps me preoccupied while I’m shopping and distracts me in meetings.
The game rules are easy to explain. You control a character on a square board. A chessboard without the black and white squares. You can move from square to square in the four cardinal directions, but not diagonally.
A basic rule that can’t be broken. Obstacles dot the surroundings. Walls, chasms, ponds, but also blocks you can move. You just have to move your character to the target square – simple.
This specific genre is called Sokoban, named after a Japanese game from the early ’80s. Over the years, the concept has been copied and expanded upon hundreds of times. But Order of the Sinking Star represents the pinnacle of the Sokoban genre in terms of scope, quality and complexity.
Layering stories
You start with an overview map that always works according to the same rules. Stars indicate individual puzzles you can tackle. The four cardinal directions are separate worlds, each with its own distinct characteristics. On a whim, I head north. In the first puzzles, you take control of heroes with different abilities. The barbarian can move more than one rock at a time; the thief can drag objects; the wizard swaps places with things. At first, you control only one character; later, you can command several.
With the push of a button, you switch back and forth between the heroes, allowing you to solve puzzles that seem impossible at first glance. The thief and wizard swap places, move a rock into the right position and can then beam it back.
While solving a brain teaser, your heroes chat away merrily. From corny jokes to philosophical wit, this game has it all. A first for the genre, and a real plus. Once you complete a level, new paths open on the overview map. Step by step, puzzle by puzzle, you keep discovering new puzzles and secrets. If you can actually solve the puzzles, that is…
Seven sinking steps
After just a few puzzles, my head’s already spinning. I push rocks into the abyss, accidentally block my own path and fall to my death. Fortunately, you can undo your moves at will. And if you ever completely put yourself out of commission, you can reset a level without loading times. OSS will deliberately lead you down a wrong path. It’s how you learn what’s possible and what isn’t. You’ll have to think ahead, experiment and analyse. You’ll need more than just Swiss politician Martullo-Blocher’s seven thinking steps to get through.
And since I soon reach a dead end in the northern part of the overview map, I try exploring the other directions. In the west, there are blocks that emit a beam of light and diamonds you can collect. You’ll quickly learn that those beams of light grant special abilities. Under green light, you can walk through walls. The yellow beam lets you destroy objects. However, the light only comes on if you place diamonds you’ve collected into their designated sockets.
As time goes on, new beams appear. You can move or rotate blocks, open previously blocked paths and teleport yourself as well as other objects. Once again, I end up stuck on a puzzle where I keep blocking my own path with a diamond. Oh well, there are still the islands to the south. There, you have to move rocks across water and reach new shores by stepping on floating water lilies. Yet another new mechanic that requires a complete shift in thinking.
All these puzzles have one thing in common: they can be solved using the resources available. In theory. Because, as is so often the case, the real problem’s sitting right there in front of the PC. In the first few minutes, you’ll have to experiment and think analytically: where’s this going? What rocks and other objects are available? What have you learned before that could work now? Once I discover a potential solution, I’m often blind to other ideas. Usually, the only thing that helps in this case is to set the puzzle aside and try a different one. Luckily, there are plenty to choose from, with over a thousand puzzles in total.
Spatial distortion
So, I move east, into a land full of mirrors that teleport me at right angles. Spatial thinking’s mandatory here. How do you position the mirrors so you don’t fall into the water or even turn one character into two? Or will you even have to make two characters to solve the puzzle?
It was my greatest challenge – too many mental gymnastics. So, back to the mysteries in the north. On my second go, those problems suddenly feel easy to solve. Some distance works wonders. The fact that I’ve already spent at least 30 hours in Order of the Sinking Star speaks volumes. I mean, I’m even speaking to myself now.
This analytical self-talk helps me solve the puzzles. «I can’t slide the block through here, and I can’t do it up there either. There’s no way to get the rock onto that pressure plate at first glance… Unless I take the thief to the other side of the pond…» No problem at home, but pretty embarrassing in a crowded train while puzzling away on a handheld console.
All together now
The further you get, the more complex the puzzles become. Ultimately, worlds converge in the diagonals. Mirrors, heroes, beams of light and skipping stones – all at the same time. But worry not, more options don’t necessarily mean harder challenges. Most puzzles are designed in such a way that after just a few minutes, the solution becomes clear.
That’s what makes Order of the Sinking Star so brilliant. Only in very rare cases do I have absolutely no idea what to do. Most of the time, it’s because I haven’t yet solved easier puzzles that would’ve explained the mechanics in question to me. This is a result of the game’s open-world design, so it’s not a criticism. There are always plenty of other puzzles to solve, and you can always try again later.
Longer development time than GTA VI
Jonathan Blow, the mastermind behind OSS, is among the best in his field. Following Braid and The Witness, Order of the Sinking Star is his next puzzle masterpiece, and a magnum opus of monumental scope. No wonder. After all, he and his team worked on it for ten years. That’s longer than GTA VI, which took eight years to develop.
I reach the first ending after about 60 hours of gameplay. When I reload that save file and see my progress there, I’m surprised. I’ve solved just a third of the thousand puzzles. What? That can’t be right, almost everything on the map is uncovered and checked off. But what about those areas marked in red that don’t fit into the concept?
What follows is one of those gaming moments I’ll never forget. A moment like when you first glide down the Siofra River in Elden Ring or ride to Mexico in Red Dead Redemption. I’m not going to tell you what it is. But it’s nothing less than a moment for the ages.
If you want to hear me talk about it, I discussed it in the latest episode of our German-language podcast A Tech Affair, starting at the 46:40 mark.
Order of the Sinking Star is available on PC, [Switch 2] and PS5. Developer Thekla kindly provided me with a copy.
In a nutshell
A puzzle game for the ages
Order of the Sinking Star hovers somewhere between genius and madness, with plenty clever puzzles that are easy to understand but extremely challenging to solve. They often drive me to fits of rage since, even though I have a hunch about the solution, I can’t quite figure it out. When I do solve something, I feel like the greatest genius on earth.
The fact that everything takes place in a mysterious world, where I uncover individual layers piece by piece, is what motivates me the most. I want to know what happens next, what puzzle awaits me and what the deal is with those strange objects scattered all over the world. If you’re going to play just one puzzle game in your life, let it be Order of the Sinking Star. This game is so extensive and so brilliant that it’ll keep you entertained for hours, days, weeks – maybe even years.
Pro
- Over 1,000 ingeniously designed Sokoban puzzles
- Open world invites you to explore
- Well-delivered dialogue
- A mysterious, deep story
- An absolute brain f*ck
Contra
- Massive size can be intimidating
- An absolute brain f*ck
When I flew the family nest over 15 years ago, I suddenly had to cook for myself. But it wasn’t long until this necessity became a virtue. Today, rattling those pots and pans is a fundamental part of my life. I’m a true foodie and devour everything from junk food to star-awarded cuisine. Literally. I eat way too fast.
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