NOTE: Somehow, the most recent updates to the game have made it incredibly buggy. In the stable release the main menu stays onscreen the entire time and I can't look left or right. In the DK2 Beta things are much more polished, but there are some sequencing glitches where I can reach the Garden without having completed a single puzzle. It's still worth a try if you can get it to work.

Kairo is not exactly the most complex game, but it gives you enough mental stimulation. Since it's only $6 right now, either go ahead and get it or wait for a sale. If you're on the fence about this one, I encourage you to read on fully.

Kairo is made in Unity, and if you've experienced a game in Unity you know that slowdowns are extremely common. Prepare to wade through the settings several times deciding what slows you down and what doesn't, maximizing appearance with playability, especially when most defaults are selected with high-speed computers in mind.

The puzzles in Kairo are particularly easy by minimalistic adventure standards, but the developers have definitely squared down exactly what kind of puzzles they need. Rather than blatantly giving you instructions or commentary to push you in the right direction, they require you to work out exactly what's going on to figure out the solution, very similar to Myst. Puzzles are isolated to their own special room, but sadly this means most of the time you'll be walking through a room that's more for sightseeing than for puzzlesolving. For the casual gamer, Kairo features a hint system that can assist in solving puzzles. There's no penalty, and it doesn't resolve if they're used or not. All in all, Kairo is a solid puzzle game.

The minimalistic visuals of Kairo are absolutely breathtaking. The wonderfully crafted levels are absolutely gorgeous to look at, and unlike many games, the additions of things like film grain only serve to add to the visuals, rather than give a false impression of visuals. Of particular note are areas of the game where the film grain is programmatically increased to add effect as you look around and wander. There is (as it first seems) only one texture that Kairo has: a concrete/stone texture kind of thing. This sort of forces you to look at the architecture as the art. And boy, is the architecture ever art. Stunning and functional, the deliberate monochrome of Kairo's architecture make it one of the most gorgeous games I have ever played.

...Well, here's where the negatives come up. Kairo's story is one that you have to infer, but the structure of the gameplay kind of causes whatever the story would possibly be to get... jumbled. I'm not sure how to describe this without giving much away, but Andrew Plotkin has a wonderful quote that hits this nail right on the head.

"If I were to level a charge, it would be that the game world never really coheres, beyond the visual level. An adventure can set up its narrative drive through discovered texts and journals (old gag though that is). Or it can build a narrative out of its artistic details, the discovered connections and implications hidden in the visual world. Or this structure can come from the gameplay itself -- the connections you discover between the puzzles and mechanisms that make up the game. By solving, you learn what it's for.

Kairo disavows each of these strategies: it chooses minimalist artwork, (nearly) textless presentation, and modular puzzles. They're separate design decisions, but together they more or less rule out the sense of a coherent narrative world. It's not a flaw in the game, but a missed opportunity, I guess."
~Andrew Plotkin[gameshelf.jmac.org]

There are a set number of secrets to the game, but Jesus Christ do NOT even try going for that ♥♥♥♥. Just look up a walkthrough. Kairo's secret ending (yes, it does exist) is a joke. I have to give that away. It's not really funny, and the solution to get to it is completely obscure to get to. It was painful to read how people figured out how to get to the secret rooms, they reminded me of classic Sierra game solutions, it was that bad. Not to mention the secret ending in the dev room (after I even managed to get to it) made me question the validity of all the other secret rooms regarding any sort of story Kairo has. My verdict? Kairo has no story, and that's the worst thing I could possibly say for this genre of games. I'm all for a game with no story (DOOM is one of my favorite games, for God's sake!) but that's a philosophy that needs to be considered on a game-per-game basis, and Kairo's the kind of game that can't handle that ♥♥♥♥.

Kairo's a game that promises too much at the start of the game and delivers too little at BOTH of it's endings. However, if you're more here to solve some puzzles and get beautiful visuals, then by all means, $6 isn't all that much. Go ahead and grab it if you're into art games, or if it's on sale. You'll get more out of this than Dear Esther in terms of fun. (imo)

Oh, also check out Antichamber if you're all for atmospheric avant-garde first-person puzzle games with no true plot! THAT'S how to do that ♥♥♥♥ right.