I will be kicked out of the Library of Babel. You’re supposed to be quiet in the library, but I’ve yelled at the TV more because of this game than the sleazy NFL hosting every Sunday afternoon.
And honestly, I was saddened by how frustrating the Library of Babel would be, given its glorious beginnings. is set 20,000 years after the extinction of humans. Robots now move the earth with little knowledge of their creators.
As Ludwik, you are one such robot, a seeker, a detective of sorts.
You are sent to a remote colony deep in the jungle and soon witness a murder-suicide. It centers around a library that “…includes everything that has been written, is now and will be written…” and the growing riot that could destroy the foundations of a robotic society. Ludwig is assigned various tasks to infiltrate this uprising, traveling to numerous connected locations along the way. It was nothing.
It’s all pretty heavy sci-fi fare that made me long for Mr. Swinehart’s escape fiction class in high school (maybe it’s time to reread) city). The story unfolds nicely as you move from place to place. The story arrives piecemeal, but is never disjointed or hidden behind the gameplay. Stay aware of your goal even when distracted by the game’s numerous side quests.
Well, maybe those aren’t side quests. Library of Babel’s gameplay is split evenly between adventure puzzle and stealth platforming. Puzzles usually require communicating with a large number of robots in each location, finding what they need, and retrieving them. This will open more items and puzzles. Despite the futuristic setting, the puzzles are familiar from the start. One robot needs power for the store. A group of guys must fish out an item that is stuck in a pipe. Some people need lubrication for their machines and need a way to apply the lubrication. Find items and combine them in your inventory to advance.
The game manages this traditional system well. However, many times you’ll run out of all possible item combinations before you finally know you can’t access what you need yet. So give yourself enough time to wastefully fiddling with inventory and moving from place to place in order to initiate the same conversations (that you can’t skip) with other robots. This is part adventure puzzle game, so you can’t blame the developers.
It also helps that the location is visually stimulating. A dense jungle setting, for example, actually feels dense. Despite the 2D gameplay, it has great depth and is cluttered to look natural in the setting. This clutter is used to hide many secret places that are fun to discover. Making your own way in this world can be very rewarding…
… until the gameplay ruined everything. His second element in The Library of Babel is stealth platforming and infuriating.idea another world again Flashback But stealthily. The early levels are great as you learn how to use the environment to get past the numerous enemies: hanging from ledges, hiding behind boxes and bushes.
For example, an early puzzle requires you to climb a series of ledges without being detected by floating sentries with sensor lasers.
If you get hit by a laser when you’re not moving, it won’t be detected, but this means waiting for the proper opening to advance.
and waiting
and waiting
and fall asleep.
and wake up.
and waiting
I don’t understand why the devs felt that pausing in a platformer for minutes at a time would make gamers happy. worsens to The proper positioning required to grab the ledge is so demanding that it often takes too long to reach and misses the jump.
Equally bad, you have to step into a new environment before you can warp. There are many checkpoints along the way, so dying usually means having to overcome some obstacles (hopefully not long and nasty).
Oh, and the reincarnation tax. Every time you die at a checkpoint and start over, you lose a bit of in-game currency (often needed to buy items needed to solve puzzles). If for some reason you deliberately warp into a settlement, you’ll have to follow the steps and replay the slow and deteriorating platform area in front of the warp point you didn’t unlock. Why not put a warp point at the start of each location? Again, mean.
So, as much as I loved the first hour or two of The Library of Babel as I loved the scattered item puzzles and logic games, I loved the overall visuals. As much as I can’t recommend this game to anyone. A patient and digitally agile player. The story is great and the puzzles are fun, but the platforming gameplay is too slow and unfair to justify its repetitiveness and frustration.
