Order of the Sinking Star Review: Switch 2 and PS5 Puzzle Giant

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Store links: Order of the Sinking Star on Steam

A huge puzzle game arrives with one practical catch

Order of the Sinking Star lands on Nintendo Switch 2 on October 8, 2026, with Thekla listed as developer and Arc Games as publisher by Nintendo Everything and CGMagazine, and CGMagazine reports a $29.99 MSRP. That is the clean, concrete pitch. This is a new Jonathan Blow and Thekla puzzle game built around a sprawling overworld, four distinct puzzle worlds, and a scale that multiple outlets describe as enormous.

The tension is just as clear. In a release window crowded with indies that can be sampled, streamed, and finished quickly, Order of the Sinking Star asks for patience on a different timescale. Nintendo Everything frames it as a meticulously designed stage-by-stage puzzler with over 100 hours of play. Push Square calls the PS5 version an ambitious beast with nearly a thousand puzzles and multiple endings. Console Creatures, in a review-in-progress, describes over 1,000 handcrafted puzzles. WayTooManyGames goes even further in tone, saying the game has “a literal thousand, if not more.” The exact count varies by outlet, but the supported point is the same: this is a dense, high-commitment puzzle release.

That makes the buying question sharper than usual. This Order of the Sinking Star review is less about whether the game has enough content and more about whether its atmosphere, tactile puzzle friction, and platform performance make that content inviting rather than exhausting. The answer depends heavily on what you want from an indie game review in 2026. If you want a combat-forward adventure, this is the wrong door. If you want a hard, cleanly built puzzle labyrinth that may live in your head between sessions, Order of the Sinking Star has a real claim on your attention.

Four puzzle worlds, one dense hub, and a scale that cuts both ways

Order of the Sinking Star is structured around an overworld that connects four puzzle regions. Push Square identifies them by direction and source inspiration: Heroes of Hauling to the north, based on Jonah Ostroff’s Heroes of Sokoban; The Mirror Isles to the east and Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes to the south, both based on Alan Hazelden games; and Vault of the Beamcasters to the west, based on Sean Barrett’s Promesst. All four share a top-down, grid-based foundation rooted in Sokoban-style object manipulation, but each has its own mechanical language.

The basic act is easy to understand. You move through square-grid rooms, open paths, reach exits, shift objects, and avoid hazards. Nintendo Everything describes a sprawling labyrinth filled with push-block style puzzles, doors, exits, monsters, environmental manipulation, and four themed starting zones. That sounds simple until the game starts giving each region its own grammar.

Heroes of Hauling uses fantasy-style characters with distinct abilities. Push Square notes one can push, another can pull, and another swaps positions with whatever or whoever they face. MonsterVine expands on that early progression, describing the Warrior as able to push objects in a straight line, the Thief as a pull-focused character, and the Wizard as a character who swaps places with movable objects, crystals, other characters, and enemies. The cleverness comes from how those tools interact. A block pushed into an inconvenient corner by one hero can become useful again when another pulls it out.

The Mirror Isles revolves around mirrors that function as spatial logic devices. Push Square reports that mirrors can teleport the player to the position of their reflection, move other objects through reflections, and even enable cloning under the right setup. WayTooManyGames similarly describes the mirror puzzles as using reflected space like an interdimensional teleporter, with dual mirrors able to create an extra clone that must be managed alongside the original character.

Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes, according to Push Square, uses stones that skim across water and move lily pads so the player can cross. Vault of the Beamcasters is presented as the most complex of the four in Push Square’s account, with colored beams that have different properties, gems that power those beams, and an underground component where those gems must be transported and placed.

The standout design move is that these ideas do not remain sealed away forever. Push Square says the game eventually overlaps the quadrants, asking players to combine heroes, mirrors, skipping stones, gems, and beams. That is where Order of the Sinking Star begins to justify its scale. The risk is fatigue. CGMagazine says the larger structure can feel like challenge rooms separated by a hub world rather than a place that fully immerses the player. For some players, that hub will be connective tissue. For others, it may feel like walking between tests.

Puzzle craft is lean, demanding, and often mercilessly hands-off

The best case for Order of the Sinking Star is its puzzle construction. Push Square praises the lack of superfluous elements, saying each puzzle gives players what they need and nothing extra. That kind of leanness matters in a game this large. When a puzzle room is readable, failure feels like a problem in your reasoning rather than a problem in the interface.

Nintendo Everything’s review emphasizes variety as the game’s greatest strength, noting that a meaningful portion of its reported 100-hour commitment came from deep thought rather than empty repetition. That distinction is important. A huge puzzle count can become padding if the rules repeat without escalation. The supplied reviews suggest Order of the Sinking Star is rarely short on new interactions. MonsterVine describes the opening Heroes of Hauling levels as simple in premise but quick to layer in new character interactions. WayTooManyGames says new areas typically introduce mechanics through one relatively simple level, then ramp complexity dramatically.

That ramp is where this game will either win you over or push you away. Console Creatures says Order of the Sinking Star is not interested in holding your hand, offering hints but little guidance beyond basic controls and the occasional new mechanic introduction. The same outlet also notes an important safety valve: getting stuck does not lock you out of the whole game, because players can leave a puzzle and try others. That freedom sounds essential in a game with this many hard rooms. The catch, as Console Creatures points out, is obvious. You can leave one wall and run into another.

As an indie game review buyer’s guide, the difficulty recommendation is straightforward. If you like puzzles that explain a rule, trust you to extrapolate, and let you stew when your first three plans fail, this is rich material. If you prefer a smoother hint ladder or a strong sense that every session will produce steady progress, the game’s confidence in your patience may feel severe. The craft is not the issue. The question is whether you want craft that pushes back this hard for dozens, and possibly hundreds, of hours.

Atmosphere gives the brainwork a strange, mournful frame

Order of the Sinking Star’s atmosphere is one of the main reasons it has a chance to stand out beyond the hardcore puzzle audience. Console Creatures describes an opening in advanced gilded rooms with a corporate headquarters feel, where the player wakes as “The Queen,” wonders whether she is dead, and tries to understand what happened to the rest of her crew after what appears to be a shipwreck. That same preview-style review notes tapes left by an unnamed adventurer, which offer puzzle advice while adding story beats.

CGMagazine also frames the story as a mystery, with the Queen transported to a strange realm where memories collide and where the four sections reveal worlds tied to different characters. According to CGMagazine, those slowly unfolding stories help define each area and cast light on a wide range of characters with their own personalities and motivations.

The tonal throughline, based on the supplied coverage, is grief, memory, and conjecture. Console Creatures specifically praises the storytelling around a large group seemingly processing that they might be dead. GameTyrant calls the story genuinely unusual and says the music does quiet work in the background, keeping the player in the right headspace. That outlet also highlights the production values and voice acting as stronger than expected for a puzzle game.

There is some disagreement on how much the narrative lands. WayTooManyGames acknowledges a deep plot and a lot of voice acting, but says it did not personally care about the story. That split feels believable. Thekla’s previous reputation, cited by several outlets through Jonathan Blow’s work on Braid and The Witness, carries expectations of puzzle-driven narrative interpretation. Order of the Sinking Star appears to lean into mystery and fragmented storytelling rather than conventional momentum.

For me, that is the right atmospheric bet for this design. The misty islands, caves, castles, tapes, stranded Queen, and voice-led character fragments give emotional texture to rooms that could otherwise become pure diagrams. The story may not convert players who bounce off opaque narrative delivery, but the reported mood gives this puzzle gauntlet a memorable identity.

Combat feel is really hazard feel, and that distinction matters

The assignment question asks about combat feel, so let’s be precise: the provided source material does not support describing Order of the Sinking Star as a traditional combat game. The reported mechanics center on Sokoban-style movement, character switching, teleportation, beams, gems, water traversal, environmental manipulation, monsters, and hazards. Nintendo Everything mentions avoiding monsters. MonsterVine and Push Square describe enemies as pieces within spatial puzzles, including interactions where characters can swap with them or route around them.

That does not mean the game lacks tension. It means the tension comes from position, order of operations, and consequence. A monster is not an enemy to combo. It is a rule-bearing object in a room where one wrong shove, pull, reflection, or swap can collapse your plan. The feel is less sword swing and more lockpick. Every movement matters because the grid remembers your mistakes.

This will disappoint players looking for the snap of combat execution. There is no supported evidence here of builds, weapons, attack strings, parries, or real-time encounters. The “feel” is tactile in a different way. Pushing a block into a corner, pulling it back with the right character, using a mirror to reposition yourself, or carrying gems through beam logic creates a slow-burn satisfaction that action games rarely chase.

In a crowded indie window, that restraint is a strength if you meet it on its terms. Order of the Sinking Star stands apart by refusing to disguise itself as a hybrid action game. It is a puzzle game with danger, not a combat game with puzzles attached. Buyers should not blur that line.

Switch 2 and PS5 performance leave one clear caveat and one open question

The Order of the Sinking Star Switch 2 picture is the clearest because multiple supplied reviews focus on that version. Nintendo Everything lists Switch 2 as its review system. CGMagazine also played on Nintendo Switch 2 and reports the $29.99 MSRP. GameTyrant reviewed on Switch 2 with code provided by the publisher and flags the main technical concern: the Switch 2 version runs at a lower frame rate than the reviewer would like.

GameTyrant adds the necessary context. Puzzle games do not rely on 60 FPS the way action games do, and the outlet says many players probably will not notice or care. Still, it says a patch would be welcome. That is the practical Switch 2 tradeoff. Portability is attractive for a room-by-room puzzle game you may want to chew on in shorter sessions, but frame-rate-sensitive players should know at least one Switch 2 reviewer found the performance below preference.

The Order of the Sinking Star PS5 evidence is narrower in the provided material. Push Square reviewed the PS5 version and describes the game as cohesive and polished, while also saying the reviewer became weary as they went deeper into the project. The excerpt supplied does not foreground PS5-specific technical problems, but it also does not provide enough detail to declare PS5 definitively superior. The safest platform advice is therefore modest: choose Switch 2 if portable puzzle solving is the feature you will actually use, and consider PS5 if you prefer playing long, static puzzle sessions on a television and want to avoid the reported Switch 2 frame-rate caveat.

Because the game’s demands are cognitive rather than reflex-driven, performance is unlikely to be the deciding factor for most players. The bigger platform question is comfort. Where will you be willing to stare at a grid, reset a plan, walk away, and return with a new idea? That is the version you should buy.

Verdict: a standout puzzle labyrinth for patient players, not a casual sampler

Order of the Sinking Star stands out in a crowded indie release window through scale, craft, and atmosphere rather than immediacy. The strongest reports point to a huge, interconnected puzzle game with four distinct mechanical families, a mournful mystery framework, strong voice and music presentation, and a willingness to let players sit with hard problems. The main criticisms are equally practical: the structure can become wearying, the hub may feel like connective walking rather than true exploration, guidance is limited, and Switch 2 performance has at least one reported frame-rate caveat.

The game is easiest to recommend to Sokoban fans, The Witness and Braid followers curious about Thekla’s next large project, and players who enjoy puzzle systems that become richer through combination. It is harder to recommend to anyone who wants brisk pacing, generous hinting, combat feedback, or a compact indie that respects a short backlog window.

As a buyer’s guide, this is a confident but conditional recommendation. Order of the Sinking Star is one of the most substantial puzzle releases of the year based on the supplied reviews, and its best ideas sound carefully made rather than inflated. It also asks for unusual endurance. If that sounds like an invitation, buy in. If it sounds like homework, wait for a sale or a patch, especially on Switch 2.