Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about.

Ahem, sorry, I'm thinking of INF (Ludum Dare 37 entry). Lemme try again.

Recursed is a puzzle-platformer. The goal of the game is to get to the goal (a giant floating purple crystal) by solving puzzles. As in a standard platformer, you can move around and jump (three blocks high, in fact). But if you're holding an item, you can only jump two blocks high (you can however throw items horizontally). Already this is a pretty novel mechanic I've not seen in any other game; there *might* be a game I've played where you merely can't jump when you're holding an item, but that's just not the same. Point is, Recursed does some neat stuff with this mechanic, as it's the focus of a fair few puzzles in the game.

But of course, that's not actually what Recursed is about. No, Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about.

Ahem, sorry, I'm thinking of INF (Ludum Dare 37 entry). Lemme try again.

There are three types of item you can pick up: keys, which open doors; blocks, which you can stand on; and chests, which are rooms which you can bring items into and pick them out of. The first two are standard puzzle fare, but it is the third that's where the game is.

"But," I hear you cry, "Isn't that just the same as rooms being linked to one another? I can't possibly see how that would give deep gameplay!"

And here lie two subtleties. The first one is that since chests are items, you can also pick up chests and bring them into other chests. This changes which rooms are connected.

But that still doesn't get at what Recursed is about. No, Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about.

Ahem, sorry, I'm thinking of INF (Ludum Dare 37 entry). Lemme try again.

The second subtlety is this: Entering a chest does not actually move you to another room; it instead creates an *instance* of a room, which is destroyed when you leave the room. So what's the difference? When you re-enter the room, it re-creates the *original* instance of the room. So, for example, you can take an item out of the room, then enter it again and find that the item's respawned. And it is *this* subtlety that creates the puzzles in the game.

Using this, you can, for instance, pull chest A out of chest B, then put chest B in chest A. Then pull another copy of chest A out of chest B, and put it back into chest B, into a third copy of chest A. Be careful, of course, because if you leave the first copy of chest A now, chest B will vanish into the aether, and cannot be gotten back (which probably means you've borked the puzzle).

This unique sort of action in a game could only ever be dreamt up by a madman. Truly, Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about. And yes, this time I am thinking of Recursed, not INF (Ludum Dare 37 entry).

Unfortunately, at some points, you have to think like a madman to solve the puzzles. That's not to say the puzzles are *unfair*; rather that they require such a weird modus of thinking that I've yet to wrap my head around the game. Contrast this with Stephen's Sausage Roll, the Best Puzzle Game Ever™, where the levels themselves usually tend to guide you towards what to do; the levels here are either doing so in a really arcane manner, or not at all. That's not always a bad thing, though, but it does mean that you'll have to experiment a lot more than most (and often don't really get as much feedback when you've done something right or wrong).

Complementing the game quite nicely is a rather catchy soundtrack (unfortunately not a fractal one, but either way it's been stuck in my head the past few days), and some nice humour ("This green stuff smells terrible! I hope it's not poisonous. *deep sniff*").

Despite its lack of level signposting, Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about. It is unique in terms of mechanics and brings a lot to the table in terms of that. While it's not as good as Stephen's Sausage Roll (because it's still the best puzzle game ever by a long shot) (SEE EDIT), I still recommend it highly, with the caveat that you'll need some patience to get through it.

Also, screw Rolling Shapes and Soko Match (formerly known as Flow Match). Those two games can chuck themselves into a chest which I'll happily remove from existence for them, because they're that bad and I've mentioned in my previous reviews that I would slag them off from time to time.

EDIT 17/09/2017: Having finished the game now, I can definitively say that it's somehow BETTER than Stephen's Sausage Roll! If you are a fan of puzzle games, you DEFINITELY do not want to miss this. The main mechanic is just so rich and the secondary introduced mechanics complement it so damn nicely. And unlike SSR, chances are that this game is of complexity class Undecideable, not just in PSPACE!

Also it has a level editor, so there's that too. And the free in-game expansion is pretty sweet too. I hope another one's on the way for the game's anniversary.

EDIT 14/02/2020: Recursed is undecidable. Good game, and well done to Erik Demaine, Justin Kopinsky, and Jayson Lynch for proving it. (This review is cited in that paper, by the way.)[arxiv.org]

Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about. Ahem, sorry, I'm thinking of INF (Ludum Dare 37 entry). Lemme try again. Recursed is a puzzle-platformer. The goal of the game is to get to the goal (a giant floating purple crystal) by solving puzzles. As in a standard platformer, you can move around and jump (three blocks high, in fact). But if you're holding an item, you can only jump two blocks high (you can however throw items horizontally). Already this is a pretty novel mechanic I've not seen in any other game; there *might* be a game I've played where you merely can't jump when you're holding an item, but that's just not the same. Point is, Recursed does some neat stuff with this mechanic, as it's the focus of a fair few puzzles in the game. But of course, that's not actually what Recursed is about. No, Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about. Ahem, sorry, I'm thinking of INF (Ludum Dare 37 entry). Lemme try again. There are three types of item you can pick up: keys, which open doors; blocks, which you can stand on; and chests, which are rooms which you can bring items into and pick them out of. The first two are standard puzzle fare, but it is the third that's where the game is. "But," I hear you cry, "Isn't that just the same as rooms being linked to one another? I can't [i]possibly[/i] see how that would give deep gameplay!" And here lie two subtleties. The first one is that since chests are items, you can also pick up chests and bring them into other chests. This changes which rooms are connected. But that still doesn't get at what Recursed is about. No, Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about. Ahem, sorry, I'm thinking of INF (Ludum Dare 37 entry). Lemme try again. The second subtlety is this: Entering a chest does not actually move you to another room; it instead creates an *instance* of a room, which is destroyed when you leave the room. So what's the difference? When you re-enter the room, it re-creates the *original* instance of the room. So, for example, you can take an item out of the room, then enter it again and find that the item's respawned. And it is *this* subtlety that creates the puzzles in the game. Using this, you can, for instance, pull chest A out of chest B, then put chest B in chest A. Then pull another copy of chest A out of chest B, and put it back into chest B, into a third copy of chest A. Be careful, of course, because if you leave the first copy of chest A now, chest B will vanish into the aether, and cannot be gotten back (which probably means you've borked the puzzle). This unique sort of action in a game could only ever be dreamt up by a madman. Truly, Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about. And yes, this time I [i]am[/i] thinking of Recursed, not INF (Ludum Dare 37 entry). Unfortunately, at some points, you have to think like a madman to solve the puzzles. That's not to say the puzzles are *unfair*; rather that they require such a weird modus of thinking that I've yet to wrap my head around the game. Contrast this with Stephen's Sausage Roll, the Best Puzzle Game Ever™, where the levels themselves usually tend to guide you towards what to do; the levels here are either doing so in a really arcane manner, or not at all. That's not always a bad thing, though, but it does mean that you'll have to experiment a lot more than most (and often don't really get as much feedback when you've done something right or wrong). Complementing the game quite nicely is a rather catchy soundtrack (unfortunately not a fractal one, but either way it's been stuck in my head the past few days), and some nice humour ("This green stuff smells terrible! I hope it's not poisonous. *deep sniff*"). Despite its lack of level signposting, Recursed is a game about what Recursed is a game about. It is unique in terms of mechanics and brings a lot to the table in terms of that. [strike]While it's not as good as Stephen's Sausage Roll (because it's still the best puzzle game ever by a long shot)[/strike] (SEE EDIT), I still recommend it highly, with the caveat that you'll need some patience to get through it. Also, screw Rolling Shapes and Soko Match (formerly known as Flow Match). Those two games can chuck themselves into a chest which I'll happily remove from existence for them, because they're that bad and I've mentioned in my previous reviews that I would slag them off from time to time. EDIT 17/09/2017: Having finished the game now, I can definitively say that it's somehow [b]BETTER[/b] than Stephen's Sausage Roll! If you are a fan of puzzle games, you DEFINITELY do not want to miss this. The main mechanic is just so rich and the secondary introduced mechanics complement it so damn nicely. And unlike SSR, chances are that this game is of complexity class Undecideable, not just in PSPACE! Also it has a level editor, so there's that too. And the free in-game expansion is pretty sweet too. I hope another one's on the way for the game's anniversary. EDIT 14/02/2020: [url=https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.05131]Recursed is undecidable. Good game, and well done to Erik Demaine, Justin Kopinsky, and Jayson Lynch for proving it. (This review is cited in that paper, by the way.)[/url]