Since big-budget gaming is largely concerned with spectacle and microtransactions, we must turn to indie games for meaning. At least that's what many indie developers seem to believe. In all fairness, this mindset does prove true in other mediums. Indie movies tend to be more artful than blockbusters. Indie musicians have more freedom to express themselves without record label pressure to make it more catchy. So it is that indie game developers seem compelled to inject deep reflections on life into their simple gameplay systems. The Sojourn is a prime example of this, as it's a good puzzle game that tries to challenge your reality.

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via: Evolve

A Typical, Puzzling Start

I feel like I've seen The Sojourn's setup in a lot of indie games these past few years. Your character, seen entirely in first-person so you don't need to worry about gender/race/identity, wakes up in a mysterious place. A mystical force beckons you, so you follow through what looks to be the ruins of a long-gone people. Along the way, you discover statues that tell the story of a boy who is blindfolded and indoctrinated into a society. What happens when he learns the truth, and what he chooses to do with that information, is up to you to figure out. To see it unfold, however, you'll have to solve puzzles.

The puzzles are centered around the relationship between light and darkness. The first concept you learn of is the existence of a dark work, a place you need to be in if you want certain platforms to appear or statues to work. The goal, to get to the end of the area, gets more difficult as more elements are introduced. Statues appear in strategic locations, and you need to figure out how to use them to clone, teleport, and otherwise open your way to the goal. Making the statues play off each other and knowing when you should be in the dark world makes for a set of pretty clever brain teasers. Extra difficulty comes from a set of scrolls that act as a bonus objective, an extension to each puzzle that makes you rethink a process you thought you solved. That said, the scale never grows too great. You can finish the game in around 10 hours. That number takes into account the "secret" ending.

As Compelling As You Allow It To Be

When you put the story and gameplay together you get a quiet, measured experience. The music is also pretty chill, acting more as atmosphere to the bleak temples or sun-drenched villages you walk through. This slow pace is purposeful. The narrative wants you to be sucked into its reflections on perception and truth. Whether that works or not will be up to the individual.

To me, the themes aren't so deep that they require long thought. Scrolls, the reward for completing extra challenges, are filled with bits of wisdom that are too vague or too obvious. Stuff like a reminder to keep an open mind. The main story's ideas never get too complex, and the end wraps everything up a little too neatly to be intellectually challenging. I didn't feel very compelled to reflect on what I saw.

To its credit, The Sojourn is artistic in how it weaves together its story and puzzles. Similar games have failed because the puzzles feel tacked on to the story. The mystical world of The Sojourn definitely lends itself to rooms upon rooms of puzzles appearing out of nowhere. And the puzzles being based in changing worlds perfectly meshes with the idea of altering your reality. So even if the themes are simple, they are presented with a certain cohesion and sincerity that you want to at least hear them out.

The Sojourn won't be the breakout indie that young creators cite as the reason they went into game development. It does, however, present a relaxing trip through a colorful world and solid puzzle solving. Perhaps that's all it needs to do. Not every game needs to be an artistic masterpiece. Sometimes a good journey is enough.

3.5 Out Of 5 Stars

A review code for The Sojourn was provided to TheGamer for this review. The Sojourn is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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