Land’s End review: an early, oddly soothing puzzle game

Released in 2015, Land’s End was an early addition to the VR puzzle game canon, deploying simple mechanics and sparsely surreal environments. I played it on my very first headset—a Samsung Galaxy VR—before returning to it on an Oculus Go a few years later. Despite very basic graphics it holds up well: a relaxing and meditative experience that evokes a telekinesis-like feeling, by the ability to use gaze tracking to move around blocks located on barren looking islands in some far-flung corner of the cosmos. The environments are pleasant in a pared-back way—lots of sand, rocks and water.

These blocks (perhaps relics from an ancient alien civilisation?) are large brick-shaped objects that, once arranged correctly, reveal various passages and entryways we’re then moved through. Walls, bricks and other objects contain small white circles we activate by looking at, then connecting lines between them. This involves tilting and craning your head in different directions, but it does feel a bit like you’re controlling them with your mind.

It also feels strangely soothing. There’s a simplicity to Land’s End that’s satisfying and well balanced, like a traditional Italian pasta dish that derives flavour and richness from a small selection of carefully picked ingredients. The game’s slight, limited, and as they say, of its time—but it executes a simple premise effectively and pleasantly. It reminded me of something Jerry Seinfeld once said about golf: “It’s just nice to be outside in a well landscaped area.”

The puzzles become more complex as the game progresses, though they’re never all that difficult. That’s not a criticism: puzzles that stump the player aren’t just irritating for the obvious reason (that you can’t figure them out) but also potential immersion breakers, ripping us out of the imaginative universe. Sometimes I’ve been so annoyed that I’ve taken off my headset, watched a playthrough video then returned to VR, armed with knowledge about how to progress; immersion breaking doesn’t get any more dramatic than that.

Making the puzzles being relatively easy to solve (but not stupidly so) also helps establish a pace. This is hard to do, as that pace isn’t set by the speed at which scenes are executed (like in movies and TV shows) but the speed at which a human completes objectives. The developers can’t guarantee players will move through the spaces in Land’s End quickly, but they made educated guesses, important in establishing a fluid sense of progression.

This game is a good example of simple graphics resonating, providing an uncluttered aesthetic. Those white circles are visual motifs as well as activatable elements; it’s very satisfying when you configure the lines properly and make the right connection between circles. Come to think of it, this in essence is a “join the dots” game, evoking activities most of us indulged in as children. Intentionally or not, Land’s End operates on subconscious levels, using virtual settings to return us to formative pleasures.