Seeing (and hearing, and playing) is believing, so do yourself a favour and check out Illusion: A Tale of the Mind, a flawed but wonderfully immersive and inexplicably-unheralded little 3D platforming adventure.

It’s one of those little indie games that rely on an interesting concept. Illusion’s bargaining chip are its environmental puzzles. Just like in Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, you have to manipulate the character and the camera until the elements of the environment come together to create the symbol you’re looking for. The puzzles are creative, but the camera sometimes hindered my attempts to find the solution. That’s Illussion’s biggest flaw, smaller being arcade elements that seem forced into the game. What makes Illusion really worth your time is its unique artistic direction. [08/2018, p.78]

Illusion: A Tale of the Mind is a marvel to look at and enjoy from a puzzle standpoint. However, it starts to bog itself down with a quirky storyline that carries the action along well enough to start with, but becomes increasingly convoluted and eventually downright boring, to the point where the ending will leave most sighing with relief, which is a massive shame as the core gameplay is very intriguing to start with, but is dragged down by an over-reliance on switch-hitting towards the end.

Yes, Illusion: A Tale of the Mind looks great and it has some good ideas. But that’s almost all it has to offer. Its puzzles are way too easy, and just moving can be frustrating.