Narrative games and puzzle games for me make a good combination. I’ve played a number of these in my time, such as The Star Named EOS, ROKI, and Inner Ashes. These are all great games, being relatively short but with an excellent story and gameplay.
In this review, I’ll be sharing a new game that fits this genre, Looking Up. It is easily the shortest narrative-puzzle game I’ve played, taking me under half an hour to complete, but this doesn’t necessarily deter its value. It still includes a great story and gameplay that makes getting it worthwhile.
Looking Up is available on Steam for $3.25.
Story – Dreams of Flying
The story of Looking Up involves two characters, a man and his daughter called Emilia. The man was once a pilot, before an injury to his leg ended this. However, his passion for planes and flying in general inspire his young daughter, who dreams of flying herself. What follows is Emilia’s journey as she grows up wanting to fly, with her supportive dad at her side, helping to keep her dreams alive.
The narrative of Looking Up is told through Emilia’s journal, broken up into four chapters, aka four different stages in her life. Comic-book strip images present Emilia and her dad’s story, linking one part of her life to another in beautifully-illustrated scenes with added sound effects and heart-tugging music to boot. The whole thing is wonderfully done.
Gameplay – Puzzles of Memories
Looking Up‘s other key feature is its gameplay, primarily in the form of puzzles. In total, there are 16 puzzles to solve across the game, and that’s not including the journal stickers. This doesn’t sound like a lot for a puzzle game, but an important point to make is that Looking Up takes well under an hour to complete. I played the game twice and both times took me roughly 20-30 minutes – and I wasn’t even rushing!
Don’t take the fact that Looking Up is a short game as a bad thing. Could it be longer? I believe so. I think it could benefit from having an extra chapter or two, adding maybe an extra 10 puzzles in there. However, what we do have works very well. Also, the fact that I wish the game was longer is a compliment. I enjoyed it so much that I want more!
Each chapter contains a series of puzzles to complete.
Looking Up has a mixture of intriguing puzzles to solve, all of them different from one another. They’re also all great fun and satisfying to solve. They’re not ridiculously easy, but neither are they notoriously hard. They hit the balance of difficulty just right. My favorite puzzles include putting together a jewelled bird hanging window decoration and matching feathers to pictures in a book. The puzzles are unique and aren’t copies of each other.
As you complete each puzzle, you earn a sticker, which gets added to your journal, in which Emilia’s story is being told. You then need to place the stickers in the right slots next to their matching picture. I had fun working out what stickers went where.
The hanging decoration puzzle was a favorite of mine.
Graphics & Audio – Dream-like
I love the way Looking Up looks. It’s a very pretty game. Everything you see is attractive to look at. The cutscenes, journal sketches, levels, puzzles, and stickers all look beautiful. It suits the game perfectly with its nostalgic, lighthearted, whimsical feel. I also loved the way the journal cutscenes were animated, and how the puzzles were handled made the items seem real and solid.
The audio for Looking Up was also pretty solid. Beautiful piano music plays throughout, again providing a feeling of happy nostalgia. The use of sound effects was also done well throughout the game, namely for cutscenes and puzzles. Everything you were shown or interacted with felt real thanks to the touches made with sound effects.
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- The story is wonderfully told through illustrated cutscenes.
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- Another puzzle favorite; matching up feathers with birds.
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- Completing a puzzle gets you a new sticker.
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- In each chapter, you need to put the stickers in the right slots.
