Samsara is a pleasant puzzle game, but it ultimately fails to provide any moment of real achievement at having solved something particularly mind-bending.
Samsara
Marker Limited · Feb 7, 2018
About
Overview
SAMSARA® is a next-gen action-adventure RPG that fuses elements of Buddhism with souls-like gameplay — challenging players to meditate on their philosophy, life and death to help them find meaning through discourse, conflict and exploration.Description:
Saṃsāra is a souls-like that challenges players to meditate on overcoming loss, failure and death through a core mechanic of reincarnation as 9 different avatars. The game is a 3D, third-person, action role-playing game (RPG) in the vein of the ‘Soulsborne’ (FromSoftware, 2009-2019) genre/series, taking cues from the older, shorter but still epic action-adventure game, Shadow of the Colossus (Team Ico, 2006-2018).In Buddhism, Saṃsāra is the cycle of death and rebirth to which all life is bound. The players goal is to find a way to escape this cyclic existence, to escape Samsara. They will achieve this through discourse, conflict and exploration within the beautiful, deadly and dynamic Desire Realm (Kāmadhātu).
Gameplay Pillars
Core gameplay pillars include:- Conflict - physical, ranged and magical combat encounters with NPC’s who become enemies depending on which avatar form the player assumes.
- Discourse - impactful, choice-based narratives delivered by cryptic, resolute and wandering NPC’s who are partially based on historical characters and represent Buddhist, Stoic and Daoist worldviews.
- Exploration - uncovering ancient secrets and witnessing spectacular vistas, the player will traverse the Desire Realm: from the isolated circular edge of the Cakravāḍa mountains that encompass the world; across the Four Great Continents of scorching sand, glistening ice, dense tropics and serene lakes, to their penultimate destination; ascending the sacred five-peaked heights of Mt. Meru to reach the Gods domain, or descending beneath to the fiery, dark, gold-laden root of the world where demons reign.
Trailers & screenshots
Scores by platform
Critic reviews
- Samsara: Deluxe Edition takes symmetry puzzles to a whole new level. The puzzles are a good workout for the brain since there are limited pieces to work with and you need to think upside down sometimes, but with very little help from the game itself, it’s easy to rage-quit and stop playing for a long time.
- Overall, Samsara manages to be a clever puzzle game with mechanics that are easy to wrap your head around and some genuinely challenging puzzles that are sure to keep you entertained. Whether you’re on the hunt for a new brain teaser or simply looking for something to play for a few minutes on break at work, Samsara is probably a game you should put on your list.
- 5.0Samsara is just another standard puzzle game that never really evolves throughout the entirety of play. Despite a few interesting mechanics, the lack of innovation is what lets this experience down in the long run. Fans of the genre will most certainly enjoy what’s on offer, and it truly is a visually pleasing journey, but that means very little when there’s just not much of a challenge within.
- 6.0This is a must-try for fans of puzzle games, although the average gamer isn't likely to find a lot in it to bring them into the genre if they aren't already fans of it. At times, it feels like it would be right at home on a tablet app store, but the price-tag is fair for the amount of puzzles the game holds, and how much variation they have.
- 6.0Samsara is a visually attractive puzzler that plays out on two planes. Trying to simultaneously navigate Zee and her shadow self to their respective doorways by manipulating the walkways with placed blocks is a tricky thing to do. With limited blocks, and endless lives, trialling different solutions and seeing what works and what doesn't is a fun and rewarding experience.
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