A Little Left, a review of the house collecting puzzle game

We learned that during the quarantine days caused by the pandemic, we spend much more time than usual in every corner of our homes. Habit and everyday trita deglaze what we see and use every day, and here household items become symbols of a sense of oppression and discomfort in which we live collectively, but each confined to the privacy of his own home.

Developed during these very complex years, Slightly Left tries to look at home space from a different perspective. Annie MacMillan and Lukas Steinman They started from the tools and furniture of the house to create a brilliant and surprising puzzle game that can enhance the hidden beauty of common objects and push us to think outside the box.

We tell you about the excellent qualities of Max Inferno’s video game. Slight Left Look.

From Canada with love

Annie MacMillan and Lukas Steinman are comrades in life and work and created their first video game at GMTKJam 2020. everyday life They embarked on the development of A Little to the Left for their video game work, and opened the doors of their Canadian home in the intriguing trailer shown at Summer Game Fest 2022. sales. By pairing the furniture in their homes with their virtual counterparts, MacMillan and Steinman demonstrated their intent to convey to the public the importance and hidden magic of the objects we look at and use every day. All with Rookie the cat, an outstanding supporting actor who is slated to play a major role in A Little to the Left.

There’s a famous precedent in house-gathering video games: Unpacking, developed by Witch Beam and released last year. direction chosen by Maximum Hell however, the objects to be rearranged are different in that they are not placed at certain points in the house and do not follow different phases in the life of their owners. Not for this reason, as we’ll see in the rest of our review, Slightly Less successful to the Left.

Order, but with imagination

The structure of a little Sola is really simple: in the context of five different sections inspired by different rooms of the house, it will have to be unraveled. collecting puzzles cataloging furniture items, cleaning and household items. It is an enjoyable and relaxing chore, and the relaxed atmosphere created by Max Inferno is enhanced by the delicate piano chords of the game’s excellent soundtrack. It takes no more than four hours to complete all available levels and there are also different types of help to progress. First of all, there is the possibility of skipping a puzzle by selecting the Let It Be option when you intend to come back later – perhaps with a fresher mind – to solve the puzzle that has put us off. You can then choose to get some help: To complete the level, the clues are contained on a sheet of paper filled with scribbles, which can be erased at will with a player-controllable eraser, so that the player can choose whether to control them or not. Uncover the mystery completely or take a look at the solution. Excellent ideas, especially in the last levels of the game, because the logic underlying the puzzles may not be very clear and it takes a lot of brainstorming to find the hidden harmonies of the objects and reach the conclusion.

It should be noted, however, that many puzzles can be solved in more than one way: MacMillan and Steinman have two different perspectives on housekeeping, and variety of possible ways In tracing the mysterious harmonies of things, it reflects the inevitable differences that exist even in a couple. Because A Little to the Left is above all this: A story of hidden chords and a book that seeks the rhythm and secret music of our daily lives.

a naughty cat

Left that way, A Little to the Left feels so quiet and serene, almost monotonous in successive puzzles. Not so: while recurring motifs are traceable (“look at book covers and rearrange them correctly to form a figure” or “arrange objects in ascending order of height to name just one pair”), Max Inferno manages to surprise by creating. original variations on various themes, thus pushing the player to question what they have learned and seen so far in search of new and unconventional solutions.

Not only that: There is an uncontrollable factor in the somewhat Left local equation. this Kitten which at times turns things upside down and makes solving puzzles more complicated. Whether it’s cleaning up claw marks or avoiding the urge to grab objects and throw them on the ground, A Little Left is often a godsend to the cat as the weird god of the house, always ready to expose his irrationality, but no less adorable.

Interesting fun picture completed by i daily reordersSent to players every twenty-four hours to expand the experience created by Max Inferno and provide a few minutes of relaxation even after A Little to the Left is complete. Completion of puzzles leads to the victory of a trophy in every three, seven, one hundred eighty, three hundred and sixty-five completed reorders: in other words, you have a very pleasant year of rework experience to complete! We were able to try these additional levels even during the review period of the game and we can say that the quality of the extra puzzles is exactly on the same level as the main game.

A Little to the Left There is very little text, but we are glad to report the existence of one nonetheless. Italian localization. We ran into a minor bug while completing a level: the game didn’t want to continue, but a quick reset fixed things. For the rest, A Little Left was technically impeccable and the always consistent art direction was able to develop the hidden beauty of even the most common objects through its masterful use of pastel colours, and the design certainly hit the mark. .