Tales of the Neon Sea

Tales of the Neon Sea makes the cyberpunk arguments of Blade Runner its own, embedding them in a valuable work in pixel art, and managing to give us back some of that sound old 1980s science fiction that, for one reason or another, continues to fascinate us. The gameplay, however, is plagued by repetitive mechanics and some puzzles suffer from a bad translation from Chinese into English.

Tales of the Neon Sea at its core is a really exciting and interesting adventure with strong characters and a complicated storyline that, by the third act, loses its original fuse and degenerates into an incredibly difficult and dull puzzle.

I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed Tales of the Neon Sea, it delivered so much more than I was expecting. Not only do you get a good storyline which manages to hook you until the end, but you also get a wide variety of puzzles, investigations, interactions and fun gameplay. Tales of the Neon Sea is an indie game which deserves much more coverage and exposure as it’s such a great game, even though it’s technically incomplete right now. I can easily recommend Tales of the Neon Sea to anyone who enjoys puzzles and appreciates a good story. Even if you’re only somewhat interested in puzzles, please play this wonderful game as it’s one of a kind.

Tales of the Neon Sea is a gorgeous point and click puzzle game that suffers from having too many puzzles, and not enough characterisation and storytelling.

Tales of the Neon Sea could've been a great cyberpunk tale. But it's full of forgettable characters and pointless puzzles. And on top of that it doesn't even have an ending — you have to wait until fall. Maybe by that point it will become better, after a couple of big updates.

Tales of the Neon Sea is a promising cyberpunk puzzler marred by an underbaked story and a host of small annoyances. Although it boasts engaging puzzles and beautiful visuals, Neon Sea drags and loses its direction as it progresses. It's a game that has potential, but it just can't seem to capitalize on it.

An interesting adventure that draws us to a distopical (an pixelated) future in the veins of classic sci-fi movies like Blade Runner, but it becomes less and less interesting the more you play it.

When Tales of the Neon Sea is tasking you with exploring a crime scene to deduce what occurred or otherwise revealing interesting details about the world and its characters, it’s an easy 8/10 game. When you’re stuck on a puzzle with no narrative justification that’s made up of 6 smaller puzzles, all of which you can interact with but only one of which is solvable at the time, and there’s no direction explaining what the hell your goal is or even where to start? That’s when Tales of the Neon Sea becomes a 5/10 game. Judging by the chapter select screen, these two halves each make up 50% of the game, and yet you’re bound to spend twice as much time with the latter as you do with the former because the infuriating Matryoshka dolls of nesting puzzles are designed to waste your time, and that’s just not okay.