i am ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ WARNING YOU as a FRIEND do NOT hover over the level "haunt" for 15 minutes without moving it will produce a MASSIVE JUMPSCARE

It is genuinely astounding the game the developers have created with mere "X is Y" statements and clever level design. When described to others, it seems like almost insulting levels of simplicity - it's a game where you manipulate the laws of each level by rewriting them by physically shifting words around. For example, you might have "Rock is Stop", which will bar your progress, so you must find a way to make Rock no longer Stop, or find an entirely different way around the obstacle. There are many puzzle games that have rather complicated mechanics from the get-go. This is not one of them, and it is extremely approachable because of it.

The puzzles rapidly grow in complexity, leading to headscratchers that can last an hour or more despite a perfect solution perhaps only taking a minute or less. More than any other puzzle game, I really FELT the developers trying to communicate a lesson to me in every level. You must develop deep, intimate knowledge of how each word and verb functions and relates to each other in order to progress far - I'd honestly recommend taking notes somewhere and jotting down your observations. If you don't understand how you just solved a level because the rules felt arbitrary, it is critical to replay the level (or look it up online) to get a good sense of it. The game has a tendency to use things that almost seem like unintentional exploits - like forcing your avatar into a space where it ordinarily could not go in order to push something out, or teleportation between two objects that works very strangely. Noting down each of these (in fact very intentional) "exploits" is important as they often form a key part of later levels.

The actual movement is incredibly simple and requires no reflexes, so non-gamers who enjoy puzzles can still find plenty to enjoy here. It is merely arrow keys to move. The level navigation itself can get a little tricky due to limited space, but effective and efficient navigation is also part of the puzzle, and the game is very forgiving by allowing you to undo movement and actions as much as you want, so experimentation is heavily encouraged. You can throw yourself into spikes and skulls with no fear, as a single button press will undo that death.

I give it a 9/10, overall. My main negative is that I think the game becomes increasingly reliant on the aforementioned "exploits" which leads to unintuitive solutions in several cases, so it gradually feels less like I'm solving it through wit alone and the discovery of a clever solution, and more like trying to remember a dozen obscure mechanics that could apply and trying each in turn before I either succeed, or fail (and then finally have to actually think).

Jumped out of bed at 2:30 in the morning when a sudden epiphany arrived with the solution to a level that had been vexing me for hours. 10/10 would lose sleep again.