Creating a puzzle game always starts with the question of how it will be set up. For developer David Shaw, the answer for his game The Long Gate was to base the puzzles around electricity and physics. Publisher Inductance first launched the game on PC via Steam and has brought it to Nintendo Switch, which is when I got the chance to give it my best attempt. While I do have a handful of complaints, the puzzles themselves are solid work and will get any puzzle fan taking a moment to figure it all out.

Gameplay

It doesn’t take long for you to get from the starting point to the first series of puzzles. The game can be broken down into multiple levels, all of which have a power node that needs to be lit up before taking the elevator to the next floor with the next series of puzzles. Each floor of this tall tower structure is a level and completing each level is what will power “the long gate” at the top of the elevator.

Before getting into more details on the game itself, note that you can get yourself stuck at higher sections of the game. The elevator does go down, but it isn’t very clear how to make it go in that direction. I was only able to take it from the top floor to the seventh when I was just exploring a little. The inability to get back down to the third floor, where I started exploring, caused me to reset. The puzzles are the same, so it wasn’t much work to get back to where I was, but it was still frustrating.

Nothing is really explained to you, so I made up a few nicknames for the objects that you will interact with. The first thing you will find you have is an interaction gun that has a series of numbers on the top of it. This machine lets you interact with all the switchers, extenders, and other items you will need to move around in order to solve the puzzles. It is also what makes the elevator rise, so do not interact with the elevator unless you have completed the floor you are currently on.

When you start solving the puzzles, you will be given little hints on the ground. These hints will be scarce and only there for the first few floors, so hopefully, you start getting the hang of the puzzle system before their gone. The majority of the puzzles can be simplified to the concept that you need to make the power line light up to the end goal, which is the power node. Follow the ones that aren’t powered to the puzzles that need to be done to power them up. Once the power node is complete, you can move on to the next floor.

Once you complete the tower section of the game, you will be rewarded with some actual visuals and a new type of puzzle system. This new system will change the type of puzzles you have to solve and turn the numbers on your interaction gun into symbols matching the aspects you’ll be interacting with.

Audio and Visuals

There is practically no music and all the sound effects relate to either electricity sounds and dragging sounds when you move the objects around. Other than these two main elements, you are left in silence.

When it comes to the visuals, they pretty much leave you in complete darkness unless you are around a powered circuit area. The objects, both interactable and stationary, that are part of the puzzle are lit up as well, but the shroud of darkness is pretty heavy. This may differ on the PC, but on the Switch, don’t expect to see much more than the puzzle section you are at.

Granted, there is some atmosphere once you complete a large section of the game, but you basically have to earn the environment.

What Could Be Better

Unfortunately, there really is a lot that could have been better for this game. While the puzzles were challenging to solve, there was nothing else to give value to the experience. It had the same entertainment value as doing a crossword in the newspaper while in a waiting room. It’s not that it is bad, but there is nothing more to it.

Putting players in that much darkness feels incredibly unnecessary. I was wondering if there was supposed to be some horror aspect to the game because of it but realized that it was likely a form of resource-saving and to make the electricity aspect of the puzzles light up more. I’ve played plenty of puzzle games that had no actual gameplay value aside from doing the puzzles, but they provide environments, music, visuals, curiosities, story notes, literally anything more than just the puzzles. I love solving puzzles, but not alone in the dark.

The control handling was pretty messed up as well. When I am moving an object, I am moving too. This seems normal when you are pushing or pulling an object, but if it gets stuck then I keep moving and it doesn’t yet if it gets unstuck then it stays the same distance that I had separated from it. Either have the object come to the player completely or don’t let the player get too far from the object. It made for a lot of resetting and finding weird angles to move things around in the small space that they belonged in.

Also, you had so much space on each floor, but it was only ever utilized on a couple of them. Each puzzle area was given a small cut-out space to use and the items weren’t able to leave. While that makes sense, why were the spaces so small when the tower is so huge? Why do you give players so much freedom to run into issues, like going up the elevator and not providing any instructions or easy method to bring it back down? If I truly can’t proceed without completing each floor, don’t let me move on until it is done.

Conclusion

The Long Gate has great puzzles to solve and is very cleverly designed to be difficult. However, there are so many issues and a lack of atmosphere around the puzzles that it almost felt like it would have been better not played. I would love to see this genius puzzle design put into a game that can elevate the experience of solving the puzzles and make them feel more rewarding than just basically powering a light bulb on each floor to move on. If you enjoy solving puzzles and don’t care about all the ambiance a video game would usually provide, then this game would be perfect for you, otherwise, I would look elsewhere for your puzzle-solving itch.