The Sojourn – Review (PC)

With the annual fall game onslaught in full swing, it’s easy for smaller indie releases to get swept under the rug. Nevertheless, The Sojourn from London based Shifting Tides is a game that has managed to catch and keep a considerable number of gamers’ attention leading up to its September 20th release. That shouldn’t come as a surprise as this is a first person puzzler boasting dazzling visuals, a surprisingly intriguing story, and a tough yet rewarding set of complex mechanics. Luckily for us, the experience pays of in mostly satisfying and unique ways.

In The Sojourn, players will need to manipulate statues, musical monuments, and more in order to move through the game’s levels. By standing on top of dark energy pads, you’ll be given the temporary ability to interact with different elements of the world. For example, when imbued with dark energy you can swap places with large bird statues. You’ll use these statues to access otherwise inaccessible areas of the map and place them on to switches to open locked gates. You can also use your dark energy to power up musical monuments that will reanimate broken sections of the world for a short period of time. This dark energy will need to be managed as it quickly depletes with every step the player takes in any direction. By warping to bird statues you can conserve this energy, but careful placement of these level elements will be needed as there is only one solution to each challenge. These early stages of the game provide a nice introduction to the core mechanics. Don’t confuse this with a standard tutorial though… the opening of the game challenges you on more than one occasion. It teaches the player trial and error and ensures you’re approaching challenges with a fresh outlook when stuck.

Layers of complexity are added as The Sojourn progresses. In later areas, players are granted to ability to move runes from aforementioned statues and monuments. This allows them to be interacted with without having to enchant yourself with dark energy. Dark Energy Wells also emerge and can be used like fans, focusing dark energy in any single direction. This all culminates in what is a major strength of The Sojourn. The sheer number of tools and elements that need to be manipulated make clearing every level extremely rewarding. Each statue, monument, power well, and rune has to be carefully examined and understood in order to figure out how they all need to work together. That’s not to say things won’t get frustrating. At times you’ll think you’ve tried everything without any real progress. Luckily, later areas allow the player to choose between multiple areas rather than just focus on one. This lets us take a break from the real doozies and make progress elsewhere.

Challenge areas also add in small bonus puzzles that can be tackled if the player chooses. These are smaller optional extras and, if the player is successful, they collect a scroll that gives a cryptic statement relating back to the story. The trouble with these bonus areas is that you can actually mess up your progress towards the main objective by trying to backtrack to the scroll. If you don’t remember exactly what you did to solve the main objective, it can be very frustrating. While alluring at first, I quickly found myself skipping past these bonuses.

Visuals in The Sojourn are nothing short of stunning. Windswept landscapes are bathed in vibrant pastels of gold, red, and a slew of other eye catching colors bursting off of the screen. Smaller compelling details can be found in levels including streams of air moving around your character, dark energy emanating off of power pads, and barbed barriers protruding from the ground.

There’s a sense of wonder as you gaze at the mysterious world around you. I spent a considerable amount of time in my playthrough trying to understand set dressings strewn throughout the world. Gargantuan monuments of slaves, globes that oddly resemble our own world, and lone houses perched on floating islands can all be found if you look close enough. Some of the environments appear ancient and in ruins, while others are pristine and metallic. It all adds a sense of wonder as you try to piece together the world elements and how they fit into the somewhat alien environment and story. The music in the game perfectly accompanies the visuals. A harp and acoustic guitar based score sets the mood by both relaxing the player and complimenting the soft and striking natures of the visuals.

Story subtly and mysteriously plays out via statues placed throughout the world and cryptic text at the start of new areas. Given how easily you can zoom by these obscure pieces of lore, I was impressed with how they grabbed me – not so much with the text, but more the statues. It’s clear early on that the story revolves around family and power. Statues of a mother and father lovingly grasping their newborn child are being watched by other statues of a solider and a king. Shortly after, the child is being taken away by the king as the mournful parents helplessly look on. It’s intriguing and saddening – and you’ll want to push through the increasingly difficult puzzles to figure out how everything ties together.

Players who don’t spend as much time with this genre may be turned off by mounting challenge and balancing all the game throws out you. But for fans of intricate and challenging puzzle games, The Sojourn is a no brainer. Its rewarding and satisfying gameplay is expertly complimented by a touching story that doesn’t get in the way of the real reason we play a game like this. The beautiful visuals round out a puzzle package that shouldn’t be missed.

The Sojourn launches on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One on September 20th, 2019.

*The Sojourn was provided to the reviewer by the publishing company but this fact did not alter the reviewer’s opinion