We Were Here Too

First review after over 4 months. Writing always feels stiff after such a long break, but hopefully it won't be too bad. Just feels good to be back at it.

The game this time around is We Were Here Too. It's a co-op only puzzle game, which I believe handles the co-op aspect really well. The controls are simple - move around, click stuff to interact with it, and uniquely, hold the right mouse button to use your walkie-talkie to communicate with the person on the other end. The game's asymmetric and absolutely has to be played with someone who hasn't played it before. You're both thrust into completely separated rooms with no instructions on what to do, and have to communicate both effectively and efficiently to figure out what needs to be done to escape through the series of rooms.
We Were Here Too takes maybe 4 hours to complete, depending on how quickly both parties catch on to what has to be done, so it's a rather short game. There's a special ending for finding all hidden switches, which might take another few hours, if you want to attempt that.

I quite enjoyed the authentic walkie-talkie, which isn't like the comfortable voice chat tools we have today that allow for simultaneous two-way communication, nope. If you hold down the button, you can't hear the other player, and while that might seem like a nuisance, it creates for a much more interesting experience, where you're almost forced to say stuff like "over" to prevent trying to talk at the same time and both missing what the other wanted to say. However, my praise for the puzzles is not quite as high. While the overall idea for the game is interesting, I feel like there could have been better puzzles to complement it. Especially annoying was the time limit on some of those, where adhering to that was more difficult than the puzzle itself. That's not to say the puzzles were bad, it's just that they could have been better, and I really wish they would have been better, since I absolutely loved the concept of the game.
Sadly, it seems the general opinion is that the first episode (this one is the second, see) was better in terms of puzzles, and just as long in gameplay. This worries me that perhaps the developer isn't committed enough to want to make the potential third episode longer and/or doesn't have good ideas for the puzzles, leaving less hope for some day getting a better version of the same idea.

While We Were Here Too did good for not sticking to some existing game formula, it's not quite memorable enough to make my list. Either better puzzles or more hours of gameplay might have helped, but its uniqueness alone isn't sufficient. I wouldn't recommend playing with someone random (not that you could, since the servers are empty), but if you have a friend who would accompany you on this journey, then I believe it's worth the few hours it takes to gain this unique experience.