Meridian 157: Chapter 3

I'm leaving the same review for all four games in the series (Prologue + Chapters 1-3) since each successive entry is the continuation of those preceding it and nothing significantly separates any installment in terms of gameplay or quality. On a scale of 0 to 10, where 0 represents Sierra Online/LucasArts-style "moon logic" nonsense and 10 represents pure logic puzzles solvable through careful observation, investigation, and deduction, Meridian 157 scores a respectable 8/10. In terms of execution of those puzzles, however, it's a generous 6/10. While generally logical and fair, NovaSoft values quantity over quality and the result feels more like a puzzle gauntlet than a puzzle game. My overall opinion is still positive, however, if you're looking for an immersive experience filled with engaging, creative puzzles that are integrated, organic extensions of the world and whose solutions drive both the narrative and your understand that world, you're going to be disappointed. Try Dark Fall: The Journal instead. On the other hand, if your primary interest lies with the puzzles themselves - and the more the merrier! - while the world around them is of distant concern, Meridian is the perfect game for you. Mind you I'm not judging, I still (mostly) had fun myself, but it's a Point & Click Adventure that delivers plenty of the first and the second but is devoid of the third. It's not a world you find yourself curious about and wishing to explore, because NovaSoft never gives it a chance to breathe and exist on its own. It exists solely to present puzzles to the player at a breakneck pace, and while you're always presented with multiple puzzles at any given time, solutions are delivered in a strictly linear fashion from the very beginning of the Prologue till the very end of Chapter 3. Solving Puzzle A allows you to solve B allows you to solve C allows you to solve D, etc. ad nauseam. That narrative incongruity - the facility you're exploring should not exist is such an obviously contrived state - combined with puzzles that simply do not belong within the world, like a fire extinguisher locked behind a complex sliding-block puzzle, constantly pulls you out of the experience and ruins any sense of immersion. This isn't a sophisticated game where you're solving puzzles to gain a better understanding of the world, an understanding that informs where you need to go, how you are to get there, and why you should continue forward; you're going wherever the chain of puzzles takes you, you get there by solving the next puzzle in the chain, and you continue because the chain isn't finished. Like a donkey following a carrot on a string.

Fun blend of puzzles and figuring out what to do with the ladle and rope you randomly picked up. Some color-based puzzles tripped me up (I'm color-blind), but in all a great play! The narrative is sparse and doled out in skip-able journals (which I read and enjoyed). Aesthetic/theme are on-point. Immersive, engaging, and satisfying.

If you like puzzle exploration games, the Meridian 157 trilogy checks all the boxes. It is how puzzle exploration games should be. No jump scares, no blathering dialog, a good hint system if needed, and just plain fun. You can exit the game whenever you want and start up exactly where you left off, you don't even have to deal with a save game list. The camera for photographing clues is great. Also the camera memory is limited so it forces you to clear out what you don't need anymore to store new clues.