The Prism

My spreadsheet instincts kicked in immediately when I saw The Prism tagged under Strategy alongside Adventure and Indie - because this is not a strategy game in any meaningful sense. Strip the labels away and you have a compact 2D puzzle platformer built in GameMaker, starring two pixel characters named 02 and 03 who are trapped inside a living, watchful prison called the Prism. The atmosphere is genuinely its strongest card: the world feels oppressive and alive, with an implied sense that the prison itself is observing your every move. That is a strong hook for a small indie title, and the pixel art aesthetic earns its place here. The core loop is built around co-operative puzzle solving, either solo or in local co-op. Puzzles ask you to use both pixel characters in tandem - opening doors, activating mechanisms, and clearing obstacles that neither character can handle alone. On paper, that is a reasonable design foundation. In practice, the puzzle variety thins out faster than you would hope. The environmental elements and abilities do shift between areas to create new scenarios, but the logic layer underneath rarely reaches the depth that would make a seasoned puzzle fan sit up straight. If you have spent serious time with Sokoban-style mechanics or atmospheric co-op puzzlers, the challenge ceiling here will feel low. The local co-op angle is the clearest reason to consider this game at all. Playing alongside someone on the same keyboard or with controllers turns the otherwise modest puzzle design into something more social and light-hearted. The shared problem-solving, even when the problems are not especially demanding, has a casual enjoyment to it that single-player lacks. Solo, you are managing both characters yourself, which shifts the experience from co-operative logic to something closer to single-player micromanagement - functional, but not the intended feel. The soundtrack has picked up positive mentions from players, and the atmospheric presentation does punch slightly above the game's obvious budget. The honest problems are polish and scope. A mixed Steam rating sitting around 68% on roughly 122 reviews reflects a community that sees genuine effort but also real roughness. There is no Steam Cloud support, which is a minor but telling sign of where post-launch attention went. The game was built by a very small team and released in 2015, and it shows in the places where the platforming controls feel loose and the puzzle design does not fully commit to its own co-op-first premise. For players who approach this as a short, atmospheric curiosity with a friend rather than a deep puzzle experience, the expectation gap closes considerably. If your benchmark is modern co-op puzzle platformers with tight mechanics and strong tutorial scaffolding, The Prism will likely feel undercooked. If you are a patient player who can read the room on a budget 2015 indie title and wants something brief and atmospheric to play locally, there is a small but real case for it. Go in with calibrated expectations and a friend sitting next to you.

Diego · Scout Team

Strategy & simulation

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