The Message from Deep Space

tickles the brain in just the right way

So far, excellent. Long sequences, like if the game wants to make sur you understand the new words. Not so much it become tedious: if you understand, you can progress quickly; if you are stuck, you need to reassess your understanding. Story is surpinsingly good: just enough not to get in the way of the pleasure of progression; but not just filler. Characters have personnalities, and the way they help is part of that. Intermediary sequences are funny and provide a little break, a relief of the neverending sequence of transmissions.

tl;dr - I cannot emphatically recommend this game enough. If you liked Chants of Sennaar, if you liked The Witness, if you liked Outer Wilds, if you liked any kind of game that starts you with nothing and makes you build meaning from the very start... you will love this game. No puzzle element ever outstays its welcome: when things start getting too cognitively burdensome, the programmer will build a feature to circumvent it. There's a reference section so it doesn't matter how much you know externally, the answers are available. Hard science in the same way as the Martian or Project Hail Mary, if you were fascinated by the Voyager discs and just how we planned to communicate with something beyond our own understanding... try this game. I'm barely a tenth of the way through and I'm utterly hooked. The only sad part is that I know it must end at some point. Oh, and it runs on a system with integrated graphics, so no excuses there. Fair warning though, there is a good amount of math, at least at the start. That said, I have dyscalculia (number dyslexia) and I've handled it quite well. If you're able to mentally track multiple unknowns from something like programming (or maths itself), you'll do fine. There's a built-in notepad, but you could also just use physical pen and paper like I have. An online tool that might help intermediary puzzles: [spoiler]Desmos is a graphing calculator that can visualize points accurately.[/spoiler]

If you want to wildly oscillate between feeling really smart and really stupid, this game is great! 10/10 You'll stare blankly at your screen for ten minutes, then get hit by a brain surge and solve ten in a row. It's awesome!

LOVING IT I have played only one session for this game and will likely continue to update this as I keep playing. Here is what I can say from the outset: This game is so creative, and has such an enjoyable atmosphere! If you're good with math, you're going to have a blast, but even if not you should be fine. I did the entire first week with the complete wrong symbols and still managed to solve the puzzles!! The music is great, the dialogue is funny, the puzzles are challenging at times but rewarding. There are plenty of quality-of-life adjustments that get added throughout the story to make the game more enjoyable: Solving problems means you can build on your solutions. In only one session this game has risen high up in my favorites list.

Only a few hours in and I am hooked. What an interesting and engaging concept!

I don't know what to say. 30+ hours of absolute peak. A few annoying glitches and typos still here and there, but those will likely be resolved soon! This game has changed my life. It's probably my favourite game of all time now. This is Arrival (2016) the game. Everyone is such a sweetheart!