‘Blue Prince’ — An All-Time Great Puzzle/Mystery Game That Sets a New Standard in the Genre

I don’t even have a clever introduction for you for this one. Blue Prince is a first-person puzzle, mystery, and roguelike game from Tonda Ros and his team at Dogubomb. And even that may be reductive. It’s a true genre-bender of a game. An eight-year endeavor, Blue Prince‘s story, puzzles, and environment will stick with me for years to come. The time spent on the game is felt in every aspect of it.

‘blue prince’s very nature will force this to be a fairly vague review

The story of Blue Prince starts with your character, Simon Jones, inheriting the manor at Mount Holly from his great-uncle, Baron Sinclair. The catch is that in order to claim your inheritance, you have to search the 45-room manor to find Room 46. This room has apparently been shrouded in mystery, and attempts to find it have been undertaken over the years with no success. Baron Sinclair is aware of this and tasks you with the challenge as he feels you are a worthy successor.

That’s it. That is literally all I can tell you about the story because there is so much more to unravel that actually ties into the actual mystery in the game that it’s impossible to get too deep into it in a review. It’s a story worth unraveling, though, and the way you discover it is nothing short of incredible. So, you’ll have to forgive me for not getting overly detailed with certain aspects of the game because certain things are so tied to puzzles that talking about them would offer a pretty solid hint to their solutions.

Time to play the game

You start Blue Prince inside the manor on Day 1. Upon entering the Entrance Hall, you pick up a letter and a flyer that describe the rules of the game. You also get the blueprint upon which you will draw the rooms. You start with 50 steps, losing one once you enter a new room. Once you exhaust your steps, you must call it a day and end your run. When you call it a day, you cannot take anything from inside the mansion or the grounds over to the next day, and the rooms reset.

Inside the Entrance Hall, you have three doors. These are your starting points. You can start with any door and use all three as it will be necessary to build out the manor. When you select a door, you have three choices of rooms to build and enter. These rooms vary from puzzle rooms to rooms that provide specific buffs, like giving you an extra ten steps when you walk in. There are many room types, and they’re all necessary to progress. They all hold secrets and clues worth exploring.

This plays into what is probably the most important and impressive thing about Blue Prince. There isn’t a wasted run. Once you get a handle on what the game is asking of you, you understand there is something to learn on every run. Almost any strategy is valid, and it’s worth poring over every room to gather as much information as possible. Because what you learn in one room could very well be the answer to a mystery in another that you’ve either already been in or have yet to discover.

‘blue prince’ is right up my alley

I love a good puzzle/mystery game, possibly more than roguelikes. Something that forces me to both think outside the box and also recognize when I may be overthinking a solution. Blue Prince is that game. This is a game you’re going to need to take notes for, not one that is going to hold your hand. If you’re like me and you have an insane competitive streak, this is the game for you. You need to write down and take pictures of certain things in these rooms because you may not be in a position to draw that room on future runs, depending on the strategy you take from day to day. But once you do pull that room and figure out its secrets, it’s an insanely rewarding feeling.

You shouldn’t be taking the same rooms on every run. Blue Prince is only beatable if you take the time to draw every room, even the ones with negative effects so you understand how they work together. There are legitimate synergies between rooms. For example, the Foyer unlocks all hallway doors. There is a room in the pool called The Great Hall that contains seven locked doors. Now, you don’t need to blow seven keys. But you won’t always pull those rooms together. Or at all. This is where developing multiple strategies comes in. I found Room 46 on Day 67 after a little over 40 hours of playing. I’ve seen people beat this on or around Day 30 with less. I know people who still haven’t beaten it. The length of the game is hard to determine.

an experience unlike any other

But I can tell you this: every single hour was worth it. You don’t have to exhaust all your steps to call it a day. If you end up boxing yourself out with dead-end rooms or your doors lead into walls, you can call it a day from the blueprint menu. I found myself using this as a strategy often, mostly when I wanted to spend a day dedicated to one particular mystery or puzzle. Once I got the info I needed, I’d call it a day and apply what I learned to the room I needed.

Thankfully, there are a number of permanent additions that can help your progress. To give you an idea of the open-ended nature of the game, I found Room 46 with only two of the permanent upgrades. Somehow, Tonda Ros and his team have created a game that seemingly thinks of everything. You don’t have to play a particular way. And there is no puzzle that must be solved to beat the game. I see people describe rooms and puzzles I never touched. And yet, we had all seen the ending.

Blue Prince is, hands down, one of the best games I’ve ever played. And that’s indie or AAA. It’s a triumph in environmental storytelling, as well as game and puzzle design. It’s a game that you need to play. The only thing it asks of you is to truly engage with its world. I still can’t say enough about what Tonda Ros and his team have put together. There is nothing like this game. Blue Prince should be front and center in contention for 2025’s Game of the Year award.

Verdict: Class Of Its Own

Blue Prince releases on April 10 for PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5. A code was provided by the publisher for review. Reviewed on PC.