The Library of Babel from Neon Doctrine and Tanuki Game Studio is a sci-fi stealth platformer adventure game on Nintendo Switch. Check our The Library of Babel review!

 

The Library of Babel from Neon Doctrine and Tanuki Game Studio is a sci-fi stealth platformer adventure game on Nintendo Switch. The game has been inspired by Jorge Luis? Borges’ short story The Library of Babel. You’ll take on a journey through a world set 20,000 years after humanity’s extinction. Everything is now run by robots. Everything seems to be going well and according to plan… until a peculiar library is discovered.

The twist? This library contains everything that has, is, and will ever be written! You will be exploring this world as a Seeker known as Ludovik, who is sent on a case to investigate a murder case in Babylon. Unfortunately, a state of emergency is declared, leaving Ludovik stranded in increasingly dangerous territory as he aims to follow trail of whoever is responsible for the murder he’s investigating.

 

You’ll control Ludovik with the left analog stick or the D-Pad. The right analog stick will control the camera. He can jump with the B button. You can interact with objects or other characters by pressing the Y button if you need to crouch, you can do so by pressing the R button. Any items that you collect will be added to your inventory, which you can open up with the X button. The ZL button can be used to grab.

Pressing the – button will open ip your map. From there, you’ll be able to review some information about each area, as well as get a better idea of how many items you’ve collected there. You can also see the control points where you can save your progress, the hidden chests you’ve found, as well as any bonus hidden items. But to make the most of the map, you’ll have to activate all of the teleporters that you find, so that you can easily move around as needed.

You can also press the L button to change tabs, so that you can check out what your next goals should be, as make as take note of the objectives that have already been complete. It’s a list that will change and evolve as you find new information, talk to more characters and locate additional key items that will help you move the story forward. You might need to find a pair of items to combine them so that you can use the new item to get a special item that is needed to access another area.

The problem is the many crazy cultists that you’ll find during your journey. They’re standing against the Matriarch and all of the learnings from many millennia of peace. You will witness this first-hand when one of the cultists storms into the Matriarch’s chambers and shoots one of the locals for no apparent reason… other than the nonsense it spewed before exploding.

Without spoiling things too much, I can talk about one of the earlier segments in the game with a puzzle. One of the NPCs has a key that you need to access a new area. Unfortunately, he got a bit tipsy at the bar and has fallen asleep. The good news is that the other NPC at the bar know how to wake him up: by getting a bullseye on the dartboard at the back of the bar! The bad news is that when the dartboard arrived, the darts were not inside of the package.

What can you do about it? You can make your own darts! If you search around the area, you’ll find an old syringe, some feathers and a couple of other items. Since you certainly know how a dart looks like, you probably know where this is going. Ludoviq will remove some parts from the syringe, will take the feathers and attack them to the back, and that’s that! Once you have the dart, all that’s left to do is find the right type of throw that will allow you to get a bullseye.

The Library of Babel is an interesting sci-fi stealth platformer adventure game based on the short story of the same name from Jorge Luis Borges. You’ll be gathering clues and key items from the many NPC you’ll interact with during your journey as you try to solve the mystery at hand in a post-apocalyptic world that – at times – doesn’t feel that different from ours. Other than the game’s resolution when playing in Portable or Tabletop Mode feeling a bit on the lower side of things, there’s not much to complain. The Library of Babel is out on Nintendo Switch with an $18.99 asking price.

Disclaimer
This The Library of Babel review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by Neon Doctrine.