Blue Prince [PC] | REVIEW

Every so often, a game comes along that simply redefines what you expect from a genre – or, in the case of Blue Prince, multiple genres. Clever, enigmatic, and endlessly surprising, this puzzle-roguelike is one of the most unique and rewarding games that I’ve played for a long, long time. And whilst it starts of as a fairly simple premise, it soon blossoms into a mind-bending journey through shifting architecture, layered puzzles, and an ever-deepening tale that’s packed full of secrets. I absolutely love it.

Check out some screenshots down below:

The basic setup of Blue Prince is straightforward, with players taking on the role of Simon P. Jones, heir to the sprawling and strange Mount Holly estate. But your inheritance comes with a catch: you must locate a 46th room that doesn’t appear to exist in a mansion known to contain only 45 rooms. From there, Blue Prince immediately distinguishes itself – it isn’t just a puzzle game, but also a roguelike, a strategy title, and, perhaps most significantly, a masterclass in environmental storytelling all rolled into one.

Every new day in Blue Prince starts in the Entrance Hall. From here, three doors present choices, each one leading to a different room selected from a random set of blueprints, and as you progress through rooms, you’ll use additional blueprints to expand the layout of the mansion for further exploration. The rooms themselves range from the mundane to the peculiar, ensuring there’s always something unique and distinguishing to see (whilst the wonderful cel-shaded visuals and intricately designed rooms ensure they’re all pretty on the eye too). The choices of blueprint aren’t purely cosmetic though, with each room having its own layout, number of exits, and potential rewards or penalties. They all play into a delicate balance of risk and reward, and believe me, it makes for a tantalising gameplay experience.

The roguelike element means no two runs through Blue Prince are the same, with the mansion resetting every day and your progress wiped. However, knowledge carries over, and players will retain details from past explorations to help further their venture through the mansion. Savvy players would actually benefit from keeping some physical notes of their travels too, with scribbles, screenshots, or, in my case, pictures on my phone, helping keep track of puzzle solutions, mysterious patterns, or environmental clues. I’m not normally a fan of note-keeping like this, but it complemented the experience and added to the allure of Blue Prince’s mystery.

“Blue Prince is an extraordinary experience – one that manages to blend strategy, storytelling, and puzzle-solving into something truly special.”

One of Blue Prince’s greatest strengths is how its systems interlock. Movement is limited each day by a set number of steps, which are consumed every time you move into or out of a room. Retracing your path or stumbling into a room with movement penalties can quickly burn through your supply, meaning you’ve got to carefully manage them if you hope to reach your goal. Clever room placement, finding bedrooms that boost your steps, or items that replenish steps can stretch your journey further, but the impetus is on the player to carefully manage this. You’ll also manage resources such as keys (for locked doors) or gems (to access special rooms), whilst rooms occasionally contain useful gear that open up even more pathways and secrets. There’s an element of luck to these discoveries, but each time you find something new, it’s hard not to find yourself intrigued as to how it’ll play into your journey.

There’s an element of random luck in the game then, but Blue Prince never feels unfair. It encourages adaptability and rewards curiosity, and whilst you may not always get the room you need, you’ll often discover something else equally fascinating – an unexpected puzzle piece, a breadcrumb of lore, or a tantalising new question that leads to another mystery. The mansion is bursting with things to discover, and even when you find yourself blocked off from exploration during a run, its surrounding grounds contain their own secrets and puzzles that’ll offer some permanent upgrades to assist players across subsequent playthroughs. There’s always a sense of progression to be found that helps keep players engaged in the experience from start to end.

Puzzle fans will feel right at home here, with almost every room offering something to crack, whether that’s with riddles, safes, environmental puzzles, or clues tucked away in your surroundings. What makes Blue Prince so compelling is that not every puzzle is self-contained, with many interconnected across the mansion and requiring players to remember symbols, notes, or layouts from past rooms (this is where the note-keeping comes handy). The game encourages you to pay attention, and whilst something you discover might not feel too important in that moment, you simply NEVER know what significance it might hold later on… it’s fascinating.

Check out some screenshots down below:

There’s real joy in solving one of Blue Prince’s many puzzles, not just because of the challenge, but because of how organically everything fits together. There are no flashing markers or hand-holding hints, with the game instead trusting the player to observe, deduce, and experiment in order to find each solution. Every choice you make in the game feels meaningful, whilst the elaborate and creative nature of the puzzles ensure that they’re all a real treat to solve. I haven’t played anything quite like it, with Blue Prince as unique as it is brilliant.

For a game that never leaves a single estate, Blue Prince is remarkably rich in atmosphere and world-building. The game doesn’t overwhelm you with exposition, but instead lets its lore seep in through journals, scraps of paper, and room details. As you uncover more of the estate’s secrets, you begin to grasp the history of the place, its politics, and the relationships between the people who once lived there. Just when you think you’ve figured it out – understood the mechanics, solved the puzzles, uncovered the mystery – the game reveals another layer… and then another. Rolling the credits doesn’t mean the journey is over. In fact, for many players, that moment marks only the beginning of truly understanding what Blue Prince has hidden in plain sight.

There are very few games that can maintain mystery and intrigue over tens of hours without feeling bloated or repetitive, but Blue Prince achieves this by trusting its players to think, to explore, and to learn from failure. Every room is a piece of the puzzle and every day a fresh opportunity, with the constant sense of discovery and the game’s ability to surprise simply elevating it above almost any other puzzler that I’ve ever played. It’s rare that a puzzler has hooked me in so much, but I constantly found myself craving another day in the mansion to try and discover that elusive 46th room… it REALLY is THAT good.

Developer: Dogubomb
Publisher: Raw Fury
Platform(s): PC (Reviewed), PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Website: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1569580/Blue_Prince/