We Were Here

How would you react if you were going on an arctic expedition with a friend only to come across a mysterious structure, get knocked out, and wake up alone trapped within an unfamiliar room? Realistically, you’d probably break down and panic. But if you’re playing We Were Here, this is nothing more than your cue to buckle down and start solving puzzles. We Were Here is a short but competent co-op puzzle game available at a price that can’t be beat: free.

The only way for the players to communicate is with a half-duplex radio--which means that you can't hear your partner when you're talking. (I hope you like saying the word "over" constantly.) While the puzzles aren't particularly difficult, the restraints on communication add a wrinkle to the process of actually solving them.

The graphics are perfectly presentable, especially for a free game. We Were Here manages to effectively create an eerie atmosphere for exploring a mysterious European-styled castle, especially when combined with its unnerving music. The only issue with the graphics is that at lower settings the graphical details necessary to solve one of the puzzles become too blurry to recognize... but high-resolution screenshots of these clues have been posted on the internet, so there an external workaround does exist.

If you like escape-the-room games, grab a friend and play We Were Here. It only takes a few hours, it's free, and it'll give you the same cooperative puzzle-solving social satisfaction. All the technical aspects are competent, and come together to form an atmosphere that is greater than the sum of its parts. We Were Here is played with two people, each of whom has a unique role. The first player is the explorer, who has to physically traverse the facility and solve the puzzles within it. The second player is the librarian, who remains in the library, where all the hints and clues for the puzzles are kept.