[h1] Alephant: An enigmatic Hebrew Sokoban about elephants and language [/h1]
[quote] [h2] Verdict: ★★★★✩ (9/10) [/h2] [/quote]
[h2] [u] Background [/u] [/h2]
Alephant is very much derived from the Sokoban style, but its unique style sets it apart from other games in the genre. The game is themed around the quirks and idiosyncrasies of the Hebrew language and follows the journey of a player-controlled elephant as it meets a group of Hebrew-speaking oxen. However, the oxen do not fully speak Hebrew; instead, dialogue (and the game in its entirety) is centered around the silent Hebrew letter aleph (א) and the diacritical signs it is modified with to produce sound.
The aforementioned “aleph”-ant’s task throughout the game is to learn about the different diacritical signs of Hebrew’s niqqud system (i.e. kamatz, segol, and hiriq). As such, the use of the niqqud system functions largely as a core gameplay mechanic to augment the Sokoban formula with unique mechanics.
[h2] [u] A Rich Cultural History [/u] [/h2]
The game hides the rich cultural history it represents in its design. The non-playable oxen symbolize the original Proto-Sinaitic glyph for the aleph (and elephant as a word speculatively shares a cognate with the aleph), the grainy textile-like aesthetic and soundtrack are reminiscent of a general Middle Eastern style, the right-to-left level progression comes from the right-to-left nature of Semitic script, and the various chapter themes (English, Greek, Phoenician, Arabic, and finally Hebrew) depict the languages’ connections to the aleph.
[h2] [u] The Sokoban Formula [/u] [/h2]
Alephant has a surprising amount of depth, with its deceivingly simple twists to the Sokoban formula allowing for some really expertly-crafted levels that can be very tricky to solve. Completely varied and increasingly complex techniques need to be used from level to level, a process made exponentially harder by the game’s intentional lack of tutorial, hints, and any sort of assistive mechanisms. In other words, the player is left in the dark on what to do and how gameplay elements operate, requiring a significant amount of trial-and-error and self-discovery to “learn” the game’s seemingly arbitrary rules (very similar to the process of learning a language!).
Each level includes one or more silent alephs and the corresponding number of separated niqqud tiles. The player has to connect all the alephs to all the niqqud tiles Sokoban-style. However, the core mechanics come into play as the player must make use of the various formed sounds (אָ ,אֶ, and אִ) and utilize their unique effects on the board (for example, the segol niqqud causes the player to teleport to a different aleph). It would be interesting to see the developer tackle the other diacritics of the niqqud system in future updates and how they would interact in more complex and compounding ways, but the game is already quite engaging as is.
[h2] [u] Doable with Some Finagling [/u] [/h2]
The main game (the middle rows of each chapter) is fairly doable with some finagling, but optional levels become exceedingly complex as the player progresses — it can take up to an hour to find the solution for a particularly difficult level. Puzzle-solving can get excruciatingly frustrating, especially when the player is struggling to figure out how to even start a level, but the intrinsically-motivated payoffs are surprisingly rewarding every time.
[h2] [u] Final Thoughts [/u] [/h2]
It’s a very unique puzzler and, to be honest, I can’t find even a single fault with the game. The exceptional level design, the remarkable and enigmatics gameplay mechanics, the cozy aesthetic, and the deeply embedded cultural representation all come together perfectly to make Alephant a standout addition to the Sokoban genre.
