Coming off the heels of its fantastic Scottish adventure, A Highland Song, developer inkle has partnered with Google Arts & Culture to make a pretty cozy little game called The Forever Labyrinth.
The Forever Labyrinth is available in-browser, only. But, it mixes point-and-click visual novel style with a dash of classic visual MUD (multi-user dungeon) games. I sat down to play it for a bit before I wrote this up and, let me tell you, it’s a cute game.
Within the context, similar to the old-school MUD gameplay that inspired it, you’re meant to be a little disoriented as you explore The Forever Labyrinth. The whole game starts with very little to go off of: “Professor Sheldrake is a collector of curious things… who found something she couldn’t understand.”
Professor Sheldrake has gone missing and, based on a note in her office, you believe the painting on the wall has something to do with it. After inspecting the painting, you get sucked into it. From there, you notice various hanging paintings within each room of this labyrinth.
You’ll get lost in The Forever Labyrinth, but you need to find your way out and save Professor Sheldrake.
You find notes, origami, trinkets, and other clues as you explore. Utilizing them opens up new portals to new areas through paintings. You can often also explore, descend, ascend, or move around each room to look at items that are harder to see. As mentioned, it’s basically an old-fashioned MUD. I didn’t know that going into it, but I’m happy I tested the game out.
You come across various characters as you explore new areas, like the mysterious Figure. The Figure might be the villain, but they might not be. All you know is that there is a monster in the labyrinth and you’re running out of time.
There seem to be 100 journal entries, apparently made by the missing Professor, to find in The Forever Labyrinth. When you start the game, it tells you that the game can be beaten in around an hour, but you can explore for several more hours to find new things. I played for around an hour, without fully beating it yet, and had a blast with how non-linear it is.
Enough art to get lost forever looking through
The Forever Labyrinth takes the art offered through Google Arts & Culture and weaves it into the gameplay. While all of the paintings and art are from real-world locations, they don’t keep it entirely obscure or just familiar. Each piece can be clicked on to learn more about it from Google. Once you come across a piece of art, it’s added to your room collection, which acts like an art piece Pokédex.
Most art in the game can be used at some point to unlock new areas in the labyrinth, generally based on themes like Conflict, Music, or Running. Combining items you come across or inspiration coins can unlock new paintings and ways for your eventual escape.
The entire game looks like a hand-drawn, monotone style, which is fitting for the theming of the game as a whole. It brings a unique, simple charm to it. As for the music and audio, the game was made by inkle. And, well, you know how much we gushed about A Highland Song’s music and sound design in our review. They knocked this little project out of the park all around, yet again.
I plan to jump back into The Forever Labyrinth to continue playing. But, trying to do a full review on it could prove to be difficult due to its non-linear gameplay. My playthrough is likely to be entirely different than yours. Give it a try over on Google’s official Arts and Culture website.
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Needless to say, it’s a difficult game. I think it offers a lot of replay value due to all of the routes you can go though. And I’m the weirdo that actually clicked to look at a lot of the art in the game. <3