TR-49 review - "Not for everyone, but certainly appeals to code-breaking fans"

• Intriguing narrative and stellar voice acting
• Reading between the lines can feel tedious at times
• Be ready to spend hours and hours obsessing over letters and numbers

I've never really fancied myself as a big puzzle solver, nor have I been particularly skilled at cracking codes. But something about old-school point-and-click adventures has always appealed to me - although you might argue that that's never really been an entirely logical challenge (combining random straws and paper clips from your inventory to create a bomb that will somehow unlock a secret room guarded by alien cats isn't exactly logical).

This is probably why TR-49 caught my eye, because, for some reason, the visuals reminded me so much of Lost in Time from 1993 - that and the fact that it's from inkle, a studio I've come to love thanks to Overboard! and Expelled!. 

This code-breaking puzzler is nothing like those two, though - and I can't say it's purely a good thing.

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Table of contents:

• TR-49 visuals

• TR-49 gameplay

• TR-49 verdict

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TR-49 Visuals

I mean, it's not that TR-49 is terrible - far from it, in fact. It's just that I think I had different expectations for it because of my previous experience with the studio's games, to the detriment of my overall experience.

Visually speaking, however, TR-49 is pretty simple - all you really have are a bunch of numbers and letters on an old-timey screen. It's the voice acting that's absolutely top-notch here, because each spoken dialogue adds to the tension and the immersion all throughout.

I can't say I care for the dialogue itself, though - especially for Liam - because sometimes, the writing feels like it's trying too hard to sound cryptic, leading to a convoluted mess of sentences that honestly don't sound like what a normal person would say. 

I can understand that it's a way of injecting a level of intrigue into the whole thing, but I feel like it's more of a crutch and takes away from my enjoyment.

TR-49 Gameplay

That said, the gameplay is what it's all about, as you'll essentially have to string combinations of numbers and letters together to decode books and excerpts until you get to your goal. 

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• Expelled! review - "Question your own morality over and over again"

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It's hard to explain everything without spoiling the narrative, but basically, you're trying to piece together what happened among a colourful cast of characters based on their logs within a machine. There are clues hidden throughout each excerpt, which can give you an idea of the right combination of letters and numbers to get from one book to the next.

Sometimes, you really will have to put two and two together to get the right combo (like, say, using someone's initials and a clue like "two years after publication" to get the correct number). Other times, you'll have to make use of good ol' trial and error - the greatest weapon any point-and-click adventurer has in their arsenal.

That makes it a tad tedious when you're already at it for a few hours, so I'd say it's best to consume in small, bite-sized amounts rather than trying to solve everything in one go.

What's the appeal?

The thing is, though, just when I think I've had enough, I take a break from it only to find myself itching to get back to trying to crack the case a minute later. It's a testament to how compelling the loop can be, but also how frustrating, as I often resort right back to trial and error as soon as I get started.

This makes it a tad difficult to rate, to be honest, because your enjoyment will depend entirely on whether you get bored easily, or you enjoy these kinds of code-breaking puzzlers and find no issue poring hours and hours of your time obsessively studying every line of text in a book. 

Unfortunately, I find myself in the former camp, so while the backstories are intriguing (there's one particular twist-slash-ending that, while I already saw it coming, still brought a smile to my face), I don't think the code breaker's life is for me.

It doesn't help that I was expecting something similar to Overboard! and Expelled! - but that's entirely on me, because the premise alone already tells you it's anything but.

Overall, TR-49 offers an interesting mix of logical deduction and trial and error to decode curious backstories during a tumultuous time. If, like me, you find it tedious to go through a repetitive code-hunting loop, this might not be your cup of tea.

But if you thrive on letters and numbers and would love to test your skills for the ultimate bragging rights, then by all means, you should definitely give this a go.