When I started The Sojourn I was expecting something extremely similar to The Witness due to the similar art styles, but I was mistaken. The Sojourn is a first-person puzzle game that sees you traversing a new and mysterious land. The story is kept vague as you are lead toward your goal by guiding lights. In this land, you will travel between the world of light and darkness as you solve puzzles that slowly ramp up in difficulty over time.

The Sojourn’s story is not told through dialogue, but is instead told through the environment itself. Whether it’s a snowy village that seems to have been abandoned for years, or the unnerving statues of desperate looking people under waterfalls; The Sojourn has something dark at its core. I greatly appreciated the gaps being filled in by my imagination and the story being up to interpretation. Though it should be noted that The Sojourn does feel a little pretentious when searching for the game’s collectibles.

I normally find that most puzzle games I have played have always felt a bit long in the tooth, as the gameplay starts to feel old over time and the solutions to some puzzles will be nothing but frustrating. That, however, is not the case here. Developers Shifting Tides have created a game that introduces new mechanics in every chapter and does a great job in teaching the player the nuances of each new element.

For instance, The Sojourn focuses mainly on travelling between the world of light and the world of darkness. In the world of light, you are presented with 3 different objects: Teleportation totems, harps that rebuild bridges and mirrors that put you in the dark world. In the light world, these objects normally can not be manipulated, however by using a glowing tile on the ground you can infuse yourself with the power of darkness. There is a catch though, every time you move your power will slowly decrease until you run out and have to recharge.

This kept me on my toes, and really made me think about my character’s placement as well as the placement of those objects around me. The goal to most puzzles is to unlock a gate and free the light trapped inside a cage. To unlock said gates you must take a teleportation totem and switch places with it to move it around, and you can even duplicate them in some puzzles. Sounds simple enough right?

Well, I thought so as well until The Sojourn introduced me to mirrors that can be moved for access to “invisible” bridges that can normally only be seen in the dark world. There are also thorns that will trap you until you travel back to the world of light, plus a multitude of other obstacles that will stump you, but will never frustrate you too badly. Though I did find that the puzzle balance was a little off, since at times when I was in the late stages of the game I would come across a stretch of puzzles that would take me one to two minutes to solve, then all of a sudden I would be hit by some that would leave me utterly baffled for 30 minutes or more, leaving me to restart some challenges in order to reset my brain to think.

The one thing about The Sojourn that kept me absolutely glued to my controller was the downright gorgeous art. From the first chapter, I was enthralled by all the bright and glorious colors, shimmering lights and the floating hills. Better yet each chapter was distinct and diverse, giving the game a bit more life and making me want to press on to see what else the world had to offer me.

Completing The Sojourn shouldn’t take you too long as I spent around 6 hours to complete the story, though I also collected the majority of the collectibles. I still have some I would love to go back and get, just so I can beat some of those oh so satisfying puzzles, so there is plenty of content here for you.

The Sojourn is the first game by developers Shifting Tides and for their first game I think they created something great! It is a game that I can recommend to other fans of puzzle games or The Witness. With some great game mechanics, beautiful art and satisfying puzzles The Sojourn comes highly recommended.

A Playstation 4 Review Copy of The Sojourn was provided by Iceberg Interactive

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

The Sojourn

$24.99

7.5

Score

7.5/10

Pros

• Great puzzle desgin
• Gorgeous envroments

Cons

• Uneven Diffaculty
• Generic soundtrack