Quern - Undying Thoughts

This game was good. The puzzles just got way harder than I was used to towards the end. Great Myst like experience

+

Brilliant puzzle game and among the best I've played. If you liked myst/riven playing this is a no brainer. The puzzles can be very challenging but fair, I only used a guide once and in hindsight I could have completed it myself if I paid more attention to clues. The game holds up quite well for being 10 years old. I was pleasantly surprised with the screenshot/note-taking tool and generally the UI is quick and intuitive. Highly recommend

Pour un jeu d'énigmes, il est long et appréciable ! Il m'a fallu du temps pour résoudre certaines. Et l'histoire est bonne. Je recommande.

"An exploration-based 3D point-and-click game mixed with escape room puzzles. The difficulty ranges from hard to very hard. If you love Myst, this game is made for you. However, if you have trouble with map orientation like I do, you might struggle a bit just trying to find a location you saw 10 minutes ago to go back and solve a puzzle. I spent 15 hours finishing the game (and half of that time was spent getting lost on the island, haha). This is not a puzzle game for beginners. However, if you are a hardcore puzzle gamer, go for it!"

Solid puzzle game. It has this unique thing where you'll learn a new mechanic, then it'll appear later in the game. The story wasn't very interesting to me; if you buy it, buy it as a puzzle game. Highly recommend when on sale.

In [i]Quern - Undying Thoughts[/i], you play as an anonymous person who has just been mysteriously transported to a bizarre island called Quern. The island is filled with various machinery and glowing crystals that seem to be able to power things. While there, you find letters from a Professor Maythorn who explored the world before you and left his research and equipment and you also encounter a spirit of a woman who appears to be one of the native peoples of the land. With no way back home, you must work your way through the contraptions on the island if you ever hope to leave. This game is an adventure/puzzle game that appears to be heavily inspired by the [i]Myst[/i] series of games. As in a [i]Myst[/i]-style game, you must explore the area that you find yourself in and solve puzzles to progress. Because I use a non-gaming laptop, I was not able to experience the graphics that this game has to offer in their highest quality. However, for what I was able to experience, I thought that the graphics did their job well in this game. It takes inspiration from other puzzle solving games where you are stuck on a mysterious island and the graphics are suitably atmospheric. The music works well, too, and also sounds like something inspired by [i]Myst[/i]. The story overall was okay, though I did not think it was particularly outstanding. It is worth paying attention to the words of the professor and spirit as you go along to understand the background story. While this game has two different endings, neither felt very satisfying and it is really left up to the player's interpretation as to which are the good or bad ending, if either. Of course, the main reason to be playing a game like this is for the exploration and puzzle solving aspects. I enjoyed this aspect of the game for the most part. As someone who is a big fan of the [i]Myst[/i] series of games, this really reminded me of the times of playing one of those games for the first time. You are confronted by various puzzles and have to work out what the logic is behind them or collect clues in order to solve them. While some of the puzzles can be challenging, I did not think that there was any point where I found a puzzle to be unreasonably or unfairly difficult. Indeed, I was able to complete this entire game without any hints. My only criticism of the puzzles is that I felt a couple of them required some tedious backtracking even if you know what you are doing. Going back-and-forth can sometimes feel frustrating with the time needed to walk from one location to another. I took about 13 hours to complete this game which I thought was a good length of time. It never got to the point where it felt boring. It does make the regular asking price of US$24.99 a little steep. I bought this on sale for US$7.49 and I think I got my money's worth from it. Overall, I enjoyed this game. While the story is a bit on the weak side, this was made up for with engaging and challenging puzzles that were satisfying to complete. If you like adventure/puzzle games, especially those inspired by the [i]Myst[/i] series, you will probably enjoy [i]Quern - Undying Thoughts[/i].