The first thing you will see in the Next Fest demo for Order of the Sinking Star is a menu prompt. The current build uses computer-generated voice overs as placeholders, likely AI judging by the demo’s Steam page disclosure. You are given two options, one to leave them on or one for “No Clankers!”
It’ll slouch your posture and make your brows meet. A bit of trying to have your cake and eat it. Being real cheeky, using the briefly deployed anti-AI terminology before we all shook on slop. It also feels like opting to take a bullet that wasn’t there before. Including placeholders you know will rile people up just to service hearing one’s own words aloud. It’s a bit of a theme with Sinking Star’s director, Jonathan Blow, who has a history of putting his foot in his mouth and his piss in his bottle. Given his previous work I’m almost certain it will be a metatextual theme of this upcoming game as well.
While the first from Blow since 2016’s The Witness, Order of the Sinking Star is a massive quilting of several other indie puzzle games licensed by him. The initial trailer had me anticipating some brain pickling Sokoban akin to Stephen’s Sausage Roll, though after some time with the demo I found myself thinking back to the Bananas Gorilla segments from Busytown (complimentary). The game is set on a chain of islands, seemingly split into four regions, each housing hundreds of little puzzles. Most demand that you simply reach an exit point, which is only easy on paper.
In region one you play as a trio of heroes, each with their own unique ability when it comes to moving rocks. One pushes, one pulls, and the third trades places with whatever he looks at. While their powers sound complimentary, working in tandem reveals stoogian hijinx, forcing you to consider the best preventative maneuvers else they step on each other’s heels. Along the Mirror Isles you’ll make work with a magical looking glass, capable of swapping items and yourself with their reflection, or cloning when positioned correctly.
While the difficulty ramps up apace, I appreciate that none of the puzzles I’ve played feel like they’re toying with these mechanics the obvious way. Each challenge finds a novel relationship between your footing, your exit and your large rock. The ability to pull things may not seem like an issue to come until it begins to feel like your sleeve is snagged on every box. Fussing around with the mirror I even came across an ability I didn’t even have a chance to use, but it’ll be good to pocket for later.
My main grievance with The Witness was the amount of puzzles that felt less vexing and more exhausting. That wasn’t a nuisance in Sinking Star’s demo outside of one particular mirror puzzle. No, that old sinking feeling came across elsewhere. When your primary avatar arrives in the overworld, she is concerned with who the Order of the Sinking Star are and begins plucking away at their secrets. Throughout she will discover seemingly unrelated codices, coordinates, runes and audio tapes. Likewise, many of the individual puzzles are bookended by dialogue that feels like you’ve jumped into the middle of a conversation. With the AI placeholders off, there were only a handful that were just subtitles, meaning Blow really went out of his way to stress their usage.
I adored the ambiance and environment of The Witness. I did so acknowledging a lot of the surrounding script and grandeur were words for words’ sake. The amount of air has continued from the developer, not only distracting but seemingly put well-meaning collaborators in a shuffling stance. A lot of Witness’ most cryptic threads amounted to a self-referential, self-aggrandizing meta-ending, and I’ve got a hunch based on what’s in the demo that the meticulous unwrapping of Sinking Star will result in a similar white elephant.