Evo Explores

Developer: Kyrylo Kuzyk | Publisher: Kyrylo Kuzyk | Release Date: 16 May 2016 | Genre: Casual / Puzzle | Website: Official Website | Purchase: Steam

Evo Explores is the kind of puzzle game that makes us stare at something that clearly shouldn’t work, rotate it slightly, and suddenly realise the impossible path in front of us is now perfectly valid. The entire game is built around that idea. Players guide a small robot named Evo across the strange Byte planet, moving through a series of surreal structures where perspective matters more than conventional geometry. Gaps can effectively disappear if players hide them from view, disconnected walkways can become connected from the right angle, and gravity is treated more like a suggestion than a law. If something looks connected, the game considers it connected.

That naturally makes Evo Explores impossible to discuss without mentioning Monument Valley. The similarities are obvious, and the developer openly acknowledges the inspiration rather than pretending otherwise. Both games use impossible architecture, optical illusions, minimalist presentation, and a small character moving through isometric structures. But Evo Explores is not simply a sequence of copied rooms. The game introduces several ideas of its own and steadily expands what initially seems like an extremely simple concept.

At its most basic, players click somewhere on a valid path and Evo walks there automatically. The real interaction comes from manipulating the structure around him. Sections can be rotated, platforms moved, columns raised, entire constructions turned, and switches activated to create a route toward the exit. The most entertaining puzzles were the ones that forced us to stop thinking about the structure as a physical object. A walkway might clearly have a gap in it. Rotate the viewpoint until a pillar hides the gap, and suddenly there is no gap. At least as far as Evo Explores is concerned. That simple rule opens the door to some very clever puzzles because it forces players to solve what they see rather than what they know should logically exist.

There are 45 levels spread across 14 chapters, with the early stages acting as a gentle introduction before new ideas are gradually added. The learning curve is extremely forgiving. New mechanics are usually introduced in isolation before being combined with previous ones, so we rarely feel overwhelmed by a new rule. The game gives players enough time to understand what a moving section or switch does before expecting them to use it in a more complicated way. Even later on, the difficulty never becomes particularly high. There were certainly moments where we had to stop and study the structure for a while, but Evo Explores is much more interested in making us feel clever than making us suffer.

There are no time limits, no scores for finishing quickly, and no punishment for taking as long as needed. Progress is effectively pass or fail: reach the exit and continue. That makes it a very relaxing puzzle game. Players can rotate something, watch what changes, move Evo into position, and experiment until the illusion becomes obvious. Mistakes rarely cost more than a little time. The game also becomes more imaginative as it progresses. Some levels introduce switches that need to be activated before an exit becomes available. Others make use of moving architecture, changing gravity, or cloned versions of Evo where the actions of one character can affect the route available to another. Those additions are important because a game based entirely on rotating impossible staircases would become repetitive fairly quickly. Instead, each new idea gives the familiar perspective trick another use.

Players might rotate an entire structure to change which surface Evo can walk along, manipulate separate sections so they visually overlap, or use one part of the environment to hide an otherwise impossible gap. The solutions generally remain simple once players understand what the game wants. That is both one of its strengths and one of its weaknesses. Anyone looking for something brutally difficult will probably find Evo Explores far too easy. The majority of the challenge comes from recognising the optical trick rather than executing some complicated sequence, and the answer is often obvious once players view the structure from the correct angle.

The game has a calm pace and never feels like it is trying to prove how clever it is by trapping players for half an hour in one room. At the same time, a few more genuinely demanding puzzles near the end would have been welcome.

There is a story running through the game, although it remains relatively light. As Evo explores the Byte planet, players gradually learn about its inhabitants and what happened there. Talking cassette-like characters appear along the way and provide pieces of the narrative, giving the abstract journey a little more context than simply moving from one door to another. The story is pleasant enough, but the puzzles are clearly the main attraction. We never felt particularly invested in the narrative itself, although it does give the journey some structure and makes the different chapters feel connected.

Visually, Evo Explores is clean and attractive. The environments use simple geometric shapes, bright colours and minimalist surfaces that keep the focus on the architecture. That is exactly what the game needs. Because so many puzzles depend on perspective, visual clarity is essential. Platforms need to read clearly, moving pieces need to stand out, and it must be obvious when two pieces of geometry appear to align. The clean presentation handles that extremely well. It also gives the game a calm, almost dreamlike atmosphere. Once again, the Monument Valley influence is impossible to miss, but Evo Explores still manages to look pleasant in its own right rather than feeling like a cheap imitation. The animation is similarly restrained. Evo walks smoothly along paths, structures rotate cleanly, and the impossible transitions work without making it difficult to understand what just happened. There is very little visual clutter.

The audio follows the same relaxed approach. The soundtrack is soft and calming, sitting quietly underneath the puzzles rather than demanding attention. It works particularly well with the slow pace because there is never any sense that players should be hurrying toward the solution. Sound effects are equally understated. Movement, switches, and structural changes all receive enough feedback to make interaction feel responsive without disturbing the atmosphere. This is definitely a game we could comfortably play while trying to unwind rather than something that demands complete concentration and headphones at maximum volume.

Controls are where the mobile origins become most obvious. Evo Explores was clearly designed around tapping a touchscreen, and the PC version never entirely hides that.

Players click where we want Evo to walk, drag movable pieces, and rotate structures with simple mouse movements. There is nothing fundamentally wrong with the controls. But it also very much feels like a mobile game brought to PC. It can also be annoying trying to make small adjustments using a mouse, which is something that wouldn’t have been an issue in the mobile version. The interface is sparse, the interaction model is designed around touch-friendly gestures, and there is little here that specifically takes advantage of playing on a desktop. That is not necessarily a criticism of the puzzles themselves. It just means the PC version feels more like a straightforward port than something redesigned around the platform.

The mobile heritage also shows in the overall structure. Levels are short. Menus are extremely clean. Players can comfortably finish several puzzles in a few minutes and then stop. That makes it perfect for short sessions, although we found it equally easy to keep playing because finishing one puzzle naturally leads into seeing what the next one does differently.

There are eight Steam achievements in total. Five are tied to normal progression, while the remaining three involve optional challenges. That gives completionists a small reason to experiment beyond simply reaching the ending. There is otherwise very little replay value. Once players know how each optical illusion works, much of the challenge disappears. It’s possible to replay completed stages, but solving the same perspective puzzle a second time is naturally much easier when players already remember the trick. This is therefore very much a one-and-done experience for most players. Fortunately, there is enough content for the journey to feel worthwhile without dragging the idea out too far.

The 45 levels are varied enough to keep the central concept interesting, and the game ends before its low difficulty and simple interaction begin to feel repetitive.

It also helps that there is absolutely no pressure. It takes a familiar optical-illusion concept and turns it into a calm, consistently satisfying puzzle experience. It does not need to be difficult to be clever, and it certainly entertained us right to the end.