Order of the Sinking Star reviews have been out for about a week now, and the verdict on Jonathan Blow’s new puzzle game is strong but not unanimous. It sits at 83 on Metacritic, and Steam players like it even more, with 97% of nearly 2,000 user reviews positive. It’s $29.99 on PC, PS5 and Switch 2, and which version you pick matters more than usual.
What Order of the Sinking Star actually is
Thekla, the studio behind Braid and The Witness, built this one as a huge top-down block-pushing adventure. There are more than 1,000 hand-made puzzles spread across four worlds, each with its own heroes, rules and story, and the hook is that those worlds eventually merge. Once characters start meeting each other, their mechanics overlap and old ideas turn into new puzzles. You can roam the map at your own pace and come back to anything that has you stuck.
What reviewers liked, and what wore them down
The praise is mostly about the puzzle design. Critics keep pointing out how many fresh twists Thekla squeezes out of pushing blocks on a grid, and that “aha” moment when something you learned in one world cracks open another. GameSpot praised how cunning the puzzles are, and TechRaptor gave it a 9 out of 10.
The complaints are about size. Several reviewers felt a game this big needed more curation, with some stretches feeling like variations on a theme rather than new ideas. Push Square landed at 6 out of 10 for that reason, and a few critics found the story and dialogue too thin to carry the long runtime.
Which version to buy
Based on the reviews, PC and PS5 look like the safer picks. CGMagazine, COGconnected and WayTooManyGames all reported frame drops in the Switch 2 overworld, and TechRaptor said it ran into a reset bug there that could leave blocks in impossible spots. COGconnected reported that Thekla has already patched some progress-stopping bugs, but if Switch 2 is your only option, it’s worth watching the next patch notes before you buy.
On PC, it isn’t on GOG, so Steam is the place to get it. If you tried the Steam demo, your progress carries over. There are also launch bundles that pair it with Animal Well, Mewgenics or the soundtrack at 10% off. Console players can grab it on the PlayStation Store or the Nintendo eShop.
If you loved The Witness, this is an easy yes at $29.99. Its sheer size is a feature for you, not a problem. If you want a tighter puzzle game with a story pulling you along, the 1,000 puzzles might feel like homework, so try the demo first.