Guayota

Guayota blends together some excellent puzzle mechanics, a nice setting and a lovely Lovecraftian story. Unfortunately, the final ingredient is a series of irritating traps, which hurts the otherwise stellar gameplay.

Guayota contains a great deal of difficulty and tested my patience quite well. I loved how it implemented puzzles in a way that isolated puzzles on a per-dungeon basis. However, I wanted a bigger payoff from completing its more difficult-levels, and I wanted the light version of the levels to have something to ease the difficulty. That said, Guayota was a great test of my logic and reasoning skills in the few hours I spent in-game. I loved the aesthetic, design, and general level construction, so it’s worth playing if you’re interested in an indie gem with unique puzzles for an afternoon playthrough.

Had it kept things simple – say, with lots of straightforward puzzles to solve with an overarching story that’s easy to follow – it probably would’ve been great. Instead we have needlessly hard puzzles accompanied by an overly complicated plot. Saying, “less is more” can come off as trite, but in this case it’s totally true.