Blue Prince review: House call

In pop culture, there's an old chestnut of a plotline where the main character receives a lucrative inheritance, but in order to claim it, they must spend the night at an old house. Raw Fury and Dogubomb got a similar idea with Blue Prince, though they skipped the cliche where the house is haunted. Instead, they put together a marvelous first-person blend of the roguelike and puzzle genres that will have players racking their brains through their journey to the house's antechamber and even beyond.

What's behind Door #46?

Blue Prince takes players to an old mansion atop Mt. Holly. The wealthy Herbert S. Sinclair has passed away and left his fortune to his grandnephew, Simon P. Jones. In order to claim that fortune, Simon must journey through the Mt. Holly estate and find its 46th room. The estate only has 45 rooms with the only constant being the antechamber located on the other side of the entrance. It should be easy, but the estate's layout changes daily. If the player runs out of steps or hits a dead end and can't go any further, they have to "Call it a day," which will start the next day with the house's entire layout changed.

Players begin each day operating under a set of parameters, the key one being that they can only take 50 steps per day with each room counting as a step. Backtracking counts as a step, so players have to think carefully before moving forward. A closed door will lead to one of three randomized rooms, which is where Blue Prince digs its hooks in deep.

Many times, a room will have a set of doors that leads further down the manor, but sometimes, a room may have fewer doors, no doors at all, or even too many doors that are all locked. Every room has a set of rules and it can be difficult to remember them all, but it's easier to remember that each falls into a color-coded category. Remembering how the categories of each room function is an easier ask, something I started to feel after a few runs. It also becomes vital to keep in mind that a room can only be drafted once, so blowing a four-way unlocked hallway early on could prove consequential later in a run. Through trial-and-error, more concrete strategies begin to take shape and a player's approach to the manor begins to evolve.

Interior decorating

Many of the game's rooms have a gimmick that separates them from the others. Some can contain gems, which work as currency to draft specific rooms, while others contain coins to purchase items. With the intersection of roguelike and puzzler, success in Blue Prince can sometimes hinge on luck. Sometimes, rooms will appear with random items, such as a shovel or a sledgehammer, which can aid in exploration. More importantly and more often than not, players will dive deeper into the house only to find a locked door. There will be times when players will get cursed with the rotten luck of drafting a room with a locked door without having a key handy or be forced to draft a room with no path forward. At that point, the only moves are to start over or gather some intel.

That illustrates what makes Blue Prince such a pleasure. Yes, it's a roguelike and there are ways to earn permanent upgrades. Exploring outside the manor is encouraged and can lead to clues on how to open up other wings of the house, which will offer daily bonuses like extra steps or gems to start every day. However, the true permanent upgrade is in the mind. It's in learning how every room works and then putting together how to make room combinations work for you. It's in learning where to draft specific rooms in order to maximize their value. It's in knowing which rooms to avoid like the plague until the "A-ha" moment hits where you realize that you do need that room in one specific instance. Blue Prince is filled with these moments and they don't stop coming. Having played this game for nearly a month, I'm still uncovering new information, new interactions, and new secrets and it's executed in such a way that it makes me want to keep going.

Nearly every room in Blue Prince has something worth investigating. There could be lore or secrets, such as a dartboard in the Billiard Room or a safe in the Boudoir. Even something small like a note in a hallway could have you wondering if it's just a note or if it has a hidden meaning. These hidden meanings can add up to solutions to much grander puzzles that span several rooms. These grander puzzles prove so complex that a physical notepad and numerous screenshots almost become a necessity for further research. It can even be fun to grab a friend or significant other and try to collaborate for answers. With that said, these puzzles can prove to be complex to a fault. It's possible to come up with the solution to something like the Breaker Room's fuse box through research across several areas, but even with the information handy, the solution to something like the Boiler Room puzzle can feel so obtuse that it becomes frustrating.

Still, the rabbit hole that is Blue Prince is worth going down just for the sheer number of layers. Without spoiling the story, there's more to the premise than simply getting to that elusive antechamber room and it leads to something greater in scope in an almost Portal-esque fashion.

Whose house?

Blue Prince is a puzzle gaming experience like no other. It's a roguelike that tests the player's ability to progress in their own mind as much as through whatever's in the game itself. It's deliberate with its pacing, which isn't always a good thing. It'd be nice to be able to move at a faster speed than walking speed, but I guess there's no running inside the house (or outside the house, for that matter).

Despite that and an ambient soundtrack that can feel dull, Blue Prince's formula and its abundance of secrets are undeniably engaging. Even if it takes over 100 days to get to the fortune in the 46th room, this is a game that will have players feeling rich regardless.

This review is based on a Steam digital code provided by the publisher. Blue Prince will be available on Thursday, April 10 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The game is rated E.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?