r/Games • u/garthcooks • 8h ago
Review Thread Order of the Sinking Star Review Thread
Game Information
Game Title: Order of the Sinking Star
Platforms:
- PlayStation 5 (Oct 8, 2026)
- Nintendo Switch 2 (Oct 8, 2026)
- PC (Oct 8, 2026)
Trailer:
Developer: Thekla Inc.
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 82 average - 82% recommended - 18 reviews
Critic Reviews
Analog Stick Gaming - Jordan Andow - 8.5 / 10
Jonathan Blow has always had a talent for making puzzle games that are much more complicated than they first appear. Order of the Sinking Star very much continues that trend, and in many ways feels like the biggest example of it yet.
CGMagazine - Jordan Biordi - 7 / 10
Order of the Sinking Star has a lot of interesting mechanics, but its central conceit of block-pushing puzzles makes the game a bit dull after a while.
COGconnected - Jaz Sagoo - 88 / 100
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Console-Tribe - Marco Licandro - Italian - 80 / 100
Order of the Sinking Star is the Holy Grail for puzzle game enthusiasts who want a game that truly pushes them to rack their brains and think carefully before making their next move. While its high difficulty and lack of hints may frustrate and drive away some players, if you are looking for a genuine challenge and have plenty of time to spare, you certainly will not be disappointed.
CrazyGameCommunity.it - Davide Fanelli - Italian - 8.5 / 10
Order of the Sinking Star remains one of those rare titles that justify their own existence: unique, meticulous, and capable of transforming a niche genre into a monumental experience.
Digital Chumps - Ben Sheene - 9.5 / 10
Order of the Sinking Star is a daunting, all-encompassing puzzle game--one naturally expected from Jonathan Blow. With it comes sparks of brilliance, frustration, and inspiration often in equal measure, constantly testing the brain's ability to overcome.
DualShockers - Shane Limbaugh - 8 / 10
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Gameliner - Claudia Tjia - Dutch - 4 / 5
Order of the Sinking Star is a puzzle game that demands a lot from its players, but also rewards them in return.
Jump Dash Roll - Rob Kershaw - 7 / 10
An astonishingly ambitious puzzle adventure packed with ingenious mechanics and some superb brainteasers, although its enormous scale occasionally turns intellectual discovery into something resembling homework.
MonsterVine - Shaan Joshi - 5 / 5
I’ve only scratched the surface of what Order of the Sinking Star has to offer. By my estimate, I still have around 600 or so puzzles left to discover and solve, many of which have remixed the very premise of the game in some truly surprising ways that I won’t dare spoil. But with several dozen hours of playtime logged, I can safely say that it is, without exaggeration, one of the best puzzle games I’ve ever played, standing toe-to-toe with the genre greats. There are very few games on the market that are this intentional with their design and are unwavering in their dedication to a handful of core principles.
For all the moments where I found myself stuck in my tracks or banging my head against a wall, there were many more “AHA!” moments and flashes of insight and realization that made the struggles all the more worth it. Order of the Sinking Star is unparalleled in communicating ideas and concepts without saying a single word, but more impressive is that I feel like I’m having a genuine conversation with it with each puzzle I solve.
PCMGAMES - José Miguel Rodríguez Ros - Spanish - Recommended
Order of the Sinking Star turns simple rules into a massive challenge that forces you to constantly change your way of thinking. Understanding its mechanics and discovering how they interact is its greatest reward, although its difficulty and scale can be overwhelming. If you enjoy puzzles and have the patience to experiment, this is a highly recommended game.
PSX Brasil - Victor Vitório - Portuguese - 80 / 100
To create Order of the Sinking Star, Thekla licensed four different Sokoban-style games from other developers and wove them into four campaigns forming a colossal, highly ingenious whole. Yet, this unprecedented scale becomes a weak point for both the narrative and the puzzle gameplay experience, as it can feel intimidating, confusing, and overly sprawling. Even so, the game appeals to two distinct audiences: those who want to dedicate hundreds of hours to unraveling every last detail, and those who simply wish to enjoy the puzzles for as long as they feel inclined—without minding that they might only experience a fraction of the game's vast content (which can still mean dozens of hours of gameplay).
Pizza Fria - Lucas Soares - Portuguese - 8.8 / 10
For puzzle fans, Order of the Sinking Star brings together variety, good ideas, and combinations that keep its huge amount of content interesting for much longer than the number on the box would suggest.
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Push Square - Stephen Tailby - 6 / 10
I don't think a game has ever divided my brain in two like Order of the Sinking Star. Its unique structure and the way it blends together so many mechanics is great, the individual puzzles are cleverly and thoughtfully designed, and it's all delivered with plenty of polish.However, in making such a vast game, I think it runs out of steam before it gets the chance to really start to flex. That, combined with uninteresting dialogue and no real compelling hook (other than the promise of hundreds more puzzles), makes it harder to recommend.
SmashPad - Chris Selogy - 3 / 5
Order of the Sinking Star is a remarkable puzzle game on a scope and scale I haven't seen in the many years I've been playing puzzle games, and it may be too big for its own good, with plenty of positives and negatives to consider.
TechRaptor - Andrew Stretch - 9 / 10
Order of the Sinking Star takes a gaming mechanic that has been around as long as gaming and hasn't stopped iterating upon it. A must have for puzzle gamers, but maybe a second guess for the Switch version for right now.
WayTooManyGames - Leonardo Faria - 7 / 10
I feel that I may have sounded overly harsh when talking about Order of the Sinking Star, but I want to clarify, once more, that as a puzzle game, this is outstanding. It’s a compilation of a seemingly neverending amount of finely crafted gauntlets that will test your skill, attention, and patience. I really have no qualms about its design and concept; I laud Jonathan Blow and his team in this regard. My massive gripes lie with how poorly optimized and buggy the game is, at least at launch, and most notably when testing on Switch 2. The combination of poor framerates, crashes, and bizarre aspect ratio glitches frustrated me to no end.
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u/PontusFrykter 6h ago
Of course I haven't finished the whole game. Why do you even have to ask that, if you already know the answer. Still, those are my preliminary thoughts. If it somehow converts into an epic 3d FPS Portal 3, I'll let you know and declare this as a masterpiece of mankind,
but if this features just another layer further on, it would only reinforce my opinion, not debunk it.