Tales of the Neon Sea is a beautiful but slow cyberpunk puzzle game
The pixel art is vibrant and detailed, but the puzzles are uninspired
Take a cyberpunk world, paint it in the style of exquisitely crafted pixel art, then throw in some neo-noir detective motifs and you get Tales of the Neon Sea. The new detective puzzle game from Chinese developer Palm Pioneer has almost all the right ingredients for an arresting experience.
All the game really needs now is an engrossing story.
That doesn’t help with where the game stands now, though. While I was left with the feeling of wanting to be more immersed in the game’s gorgeous world, I also felt unfulfilled after I was dragged through a bunch of uninspiring puzzles without delivering any meaningful payoff.
All things considered, Tales of the Neon Sea is a beautiful puzzle game, but it’s also a missed opportunity. Given the game's conventional selection of puzzles, it feels much more like a traditional puzzle game than the eye-opening adventure it’s presented as.
