The Sojourn

I'm only partway through, but my initial impressions are that this game is wonderful. It's great to get away from the over complicated nature of today's games, with battle passes and limited time events and inventories with 1500 items, having to go out and grind for gear, and sit there forced to listen to (or read) NPCs talking to each other for hours.

This game brings back the simplicity of games I haven't seen in a while. You have basically two core concepts: following the mostly textless, symbolic journey of life, and solving short puzzles in each area to advance to the next.
(I appreciate that I'm not forcefully paused to read/click through a bunch of conversations before getting back to actually playing. It's mostly just statues or animations as you're walking by, that tell a story.)

This game is beautiful. I love the art style (which is the main reason I bought it) and effects and level / environment design.

The sound design and music are really good too. There's something really pleasant about even the sounds of the level forming together out of crumbled material when you first walk into it.

The puzzles so far have been satisfying as well, with a good progression from introductory/basic sample levels introducing a new concept, to subsequent levels building on those concepts and getting a little harder each time to keep you interested.
(I've gone through around 22 puzzles so far and 6 bonus puzzles.)

There is an area with two optional bonus puzzles that you can walk past, and I wish the game told you if you could go back and do these later even if you skip them. I'm not sure if you can, but that was the first thing I looked for before continuing. Based on a forum post it sounds like you may be able to after finishing the game.

Also of note, this game doesn't mention anything about VR support, but automatically launches SteamVR when you run it. You can disable that by adding -nohmd to the launch options. Or you can try what seems like kind of an automatic built-into-the-engine vr headset support by adding -vr to the launch options. It looks pretty with the headset, but you can't see any of the menus (you have to navigate them blind by checking how to navigate them in flatscreen mode first), and any of the instruction text on screen which explains new puzzle concepts, is far off to the top left so you can't really see it in your headset or on your screen if you have vr mode enabled. It also doesn't support VR controllers. So the hidden VR mode isn't functional enough to work for your first playthrough. Maybe if you wanted to play through it a second time after figuring out all the concepts.

It does work with a gamepad, which is nice.

So chill, very easy to pick up and play, yet the puzzles still make you pause and think. GORGEOUS game, the play of light and dark and the way the world forms around you is ingenious. The soundtrack is really beautiful, keeps you focused but also really good if you have anxiety or stress, it has that soothing element. There are puzzles but so far, nothing has imposed a timer or anything, I can move and explore at my own pace.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with The Sojourn, but it's also flawed in many ways. Some reviews are talking about very tight frame-windows, but that just isn't the case anywhere in the game, unless you try to cheese puzzles.

+ Breathtaking Visuals
+ Clever Puzzles
+ Beautiful Soundtrack

- No Run Button -> this game is extremely slow and a lot of puzzles require backtracking
- While the puzzles are good, the variety just isn't there and it gets repetitive pretty early on
- Way too long for the lack of variety
- Lots of cheese
- Some Softlocks force you to restart the current puzzle, very annoying especially in combination with the slow walking speed

This would be a much better game if it was only half as long as it is, but it's also not so bad that it deserves a negative review. I'm excited to see what this studio makes next.

Very chill and relaxing puzzle game

The Sojourn is a first person puzzle game and from that you'll know if you'll enjoy this game or not. It took me 14 hours to beat as at times I was having to scratch my head trying to figure out the solution to some of the merit puzzles! Loved the art and the atmosphere that the music creates!

One of the better first person puzzle games that I played.

What strikes me most about this game is that all the levels are small. There are only a few puzzle elements per level. Yet, most of the levels succeed in being challenging. Some of the levels are real head-scratchers.

Everything about this game feels good. The game has the right level of difficulty. The environments look nice. The effects and the changing environment in between the puzzles make the trip worthwhile. The sojourn tries to tell a story with static human figures you encounter. All together it's a wonderful journey.

Yes.