If there’s one thing I tend to applaud most in indie games, it’s a spirit of being surprising and doing things differently. Granted, there’s more to making a great game than being a bit original, but games that stand more on their own at least make it clear the developers behind them are trying. In the case of Is this Game Trying to Kill Me, perhaps not everything it does feels fresh (it is a puzzle game after all), but there are elements that at least help set it apart from many of its peers.

At the start, it can take a few moments to get oriented and on track as you’re given no real direction, outside of simply trying to interact with everything you can in a small enclosed room. Settling in on a PC that’s running a game called Castle Serpentshtain, you’ll pretty quickly find that your means of escape are tied directly to the actions your character performs in the game. This really is the game’s best feature, and one of the things that should help it to at least be memorable, the need to often shift between solving puzzles within the PC game within the game, and within the 3D space that your main character is occupying. 

Of course, on the whole I’d say I would have been happier with more puzzles and activities taking place in the 2D confines of the PC game, rather than in the open space you’re working in. Some of that may be tied to the 2D puzzles being more familiar in some way, but in execution they’re also often much easier to complete. In particular, when some challenges are tied to a time limit, the 3D space and having to find things in it quickly can tend to be aggravating. Throw in a few boss battles that don’t always feel like you’re well equipped for success mechanically, and the experience tends to have its ups and downs.

That leaves you with a game that’s a little bit of everything, both in terms of presentation, and the challenges you face. The problem with this is that perhaps it was inevitable that some areas would feel better implemented and conceived than others, and shifting back and forth between good and not-so-good can be aggravating, especially when you’ll simply die a lot for your mistakes along the way. It makes for a decent experience, but not necessarily a good or great one.