You are a newly born body stuck in a mysterious yet mesmerizing new world. You have no voice, and thus you let yourself be guided by a celestial voice. Following everything it tells you to do, you move forward from puzzle to puzzle, always questioning why you’re following a voice you know nothing about. Is this the right path to take?

Find your path

The moment you start playing Etherborn, you’ll be sucked into its incredible atmosphere immediately. The game takes inspiration from modern art and everywhere you go, it looks like you’re walking through an interactive piece of art. The world created for Etherborn is magical and mysterious at the same time. As a new body, you don’t really understand the environment and without further explanation, you’re forced to venture forward. The game never holds your hand and wants you to find your own path. Led by the celestial voice, you move from level to level, solving a lot of puzzles along the way but the more you play, the more you question the voice. What is it doing in such a beautiful place? Why is it commanding you to go where it wants you to go? Don’t you have a will on your own? Is there even such a thing as free will?

These questions in combination with the stellar soundtrack and striking visuals transform Ehterborn from a ‘normal’ puzzle game to something that rises above that label. Yes, in its core, Etherborn is a puzzle game but thanks to its setting, it’s so much more. Although it’s not a very long game, it’s one that will stick with you even after finishing it. There’s just something about this mesmerizing world that you simply can’t let go. It’s amazing to see how much thought went into the design and in the end, it really paid off.

Prepare for some puzzles

The mysterious narrative is reason enough to at least try Etherborn once you get the opportunity but if you’re a fan of puzzle games, you’re in for a real treat. Explaining the mechanics of Etherborn on paper is rather hard since it’s such a unique concept but let me try to walk you through it. The key element in the game is your center of gravity, which can shift depending on your perspective. Your character can walk and jump on flat surfaces, just like any other platform game. Where most platformers focus on jumping, Etherborn focusses on falling. Your character can, for example, walk from one wall onto another, shifting the gravity and shifting the entire environment with it. If you want to reach another platform, you can search for a smooth transition between walls, since the character can’t jump over edges, or you can jump down, aiming at whatever’s underneath you. To make it a bit easier, there’s a small circle showing where you will land if you make that jump, it’s a bit easier but Etherborn is far from an easy game.

Due to the fact that you’re constantly shifting gravity and twisting your environment, it’s easy to get disorientated. Also, note that jumping from wall to wall and ledge to ledge isn’t your only challenge. As said before, it’s mainly a puzzle game. Puzzles are mostly solved by placing orbs of lights on the right switches, which will then activate something in the environment, bridges for example. By playing around with these orbs and by recollection them from switches you used before, you’ll eventually advance in the game. Finding the orbs and placing them on the right switch all while you’re moving your environment with some gravitational shifts result in a truly challenging game. Depending on how quickly you pick up these mechanics, the game will take you between two to three hours to complete but finding the right solution to a puzzle will always be extremely rewarding.

Conclusion:

Etherborn isn’t a long game and yet it offers something you’ll remember for years. The mesmerizing environments, the mysterious story, and the challenging puzzles all add up to a truly unique experience. It’s one of the hardest and at the same time most rewarding games I’ve played in a long time and it’s definitely worth giving a try. Open your mind for something new and be amazed at what this game has to offer.

9/10

Tested on Nintendo Switch