Platform: PC

Developer: Forever Entertainment S. A.

Publisher: Forever Entertainment S. A.

Release Date(NA): December 13, 2013

Genre: Puzzle/Adventure

Nerd Rating: 8 out of 10

With the new year having just rung in you may have made a new year’s resolution (you may have also already broken said resolution). Many wish to have a successful diet, or maybe finally get serious about an exercise routine, but a few might want to better their mind and stretch their cognitive skills (or maybe you couldn’t care less and are just looking for a new game to play). For those who are looking to better their mind, Violett is the game for you.

In Violett, you play a girl who is thrown into a fantastical world, and the only way to get back to her parents is to use her newfound telekinetic powers to find her way home.  With influences coming from the worlds of Alice in Wonderland, Escher’s Relativity, and Coraline, this indie adventure game is straight from an insane lucid dream.

Violett is a pure puzzle game straight to the core. Each room that you enter is a completely new puzzle to solve. Unlike most other puzzle games, Violett did not feel at all repetitive. Every puzzle had different and unique aspects to it that were not repeated in another level.

Along with being unique, I can promise these puzzles are not so simple that they’re stupid. It takes a bit of brain work to get through every level (which is more than I can say about many other “puzzle games”). The difficulty of each level ranges slightly; some levels are a bit easier to figure out than others.

Violett is a point-and-click type of game. With only a click of your mouse, you can control Violett’s movements and what she interacts with. The interactions and movement were fairly smooth. The controls are about as simple as they come, leaving you the brainpower to figure out the puzzles without having to struggle with confusing controls and non-responsive interaction. In the bathroom level, I had a hard time controlling the pulleys, leading me to consistent failure with other parts of the puzzle. The pulley issue wasn’t too big of a problem, it just made me take more time than I typically would have to complete the puzzle.

For the most part, Violett was glitch-free. This was really exciting, as I have played far too many games than I’d care to admit that had glitches bursting out of every crack and crevice. To have a game that is so well put together is a real treat.

Look familiar?

To compliment how much care was put into the technical aspect of Violett, the developers had to match it with the visual artwork. While Violett did pull from various surrealist sources, the art did have its own originality. The artwork was set up so that it looks like you’re interacting within a painting rather than a game. Violett almost feels like it’s not a game at all, but instead, an artistic experience that you can interact with.

If you know me, you know that I’m a sucker for a good music score in video games. In Violett, the developers took as much care with the soundtrack as they did with every other aspect of the game. Violett’s soundtrack is calming but strangely catchy. The music is more of a calming background layer of the game instead of being in your face with excitement and unnecessary bells and whistles.

Violett, in conclusion, is the perfect balance of puzzle, art, and music. I wholeheartedly recommend this title to the puzzle solvers and art enthusiasts. So, If you desire to test your puzzle solving skills with Violett, the game is available for PC download through Steam.