Review | We Were Here Together

We Were Here Together is the third iteration of this puzzle game from the dutch studio Total Mayhem Games that puts you in a world filled with puzzles where you have to work together with a friend to solve said puzzles. The game is aimed for 2 person co-op so you will need a friend to play this game.

Visually this game is very pleasing to the eye and certainly a step up in quality from the previous 2 games in the series. I have yet to see anything that looked off or strange graphics wise while playing through the game although sometimes the glare of light reflecting off of a screw or other metalic object made me think that I found something interactable but it was just a set piece of the environment.

Gameplay wise this game is also quite a step up from the previous games. The first game took me and my friend 2.5 hours to 100%, the second game took us 4 hours and this one took us over 9 hours to 100% although we could have done this one faster but we got a bit stuck on one of the later puzzles. There are more puzzles, more intricate puzzles and some of them are also quite a step up in difficulty compared to the previous games. What I really like about this one compared to the other games in the series is the fact that you first start off puzzling together and it is only around halfway through the game where you get seperated and have to start using your walkie talkies or another voice chat program to get through the puzzles (we used Discord because sometimes the in-game voice chat would get stuck in broadcast mode and we could hear everything happening in eachothers background environment). Each of the 2 players have parts of the solution to the puzzles and have to relay information to eachother to solve the puzzles together. For example, one of the players has formula’s to a certain element you need to create in-game but the formula’s have abbreviations which the other player has so you have to help eachother and combine the information you have to finish the formula’s and create the item you need to finish the puzzle.

Although they have implemented more of a story to this game I have to admit that obviously it is better than the previous games but it is still quite lackluster. But I did enjoy the story soo far. They just could have done more with it in my opinion.

The audio is once again very good and I particularly enjoyed a scene where someone was playing on an organ in a church, very crisp audio apart from the small bug we had with the in-game voice chat but the quality of the audio was great.

Although the puzzles are a big step up both in duration as well as difficulty I do have to admit there were a few puzzles where it was quite unclear as to what we were supposed to do to progress. This is probably why you could probably finish this game faster than our 9 hours if you catch onto what you need to do faster than we did.

If you want to 100% this game and get all the achievements as we did on Steam then you have to play through the game at least twice. As I mentioned before you play the first handful of chapters together and you will both receive the same achievements but from the point on where you get seperated you will have to replay the game from the other player’s perspective and do the other parts of the puzzles. But fret not, there is a chapter checkpoint system where you can easily make a new game room and choose the chapter you wish to play and switch roles so you get the other part of the puzzles.

All in all a very visually and audibly pleasing game which is a lot of fun to play with a friend and also quite nice and satisfying to 100% for achievement purposes. The puzzles were great and very enjoyable and that AHA moment when you finally find out what it exactly is that you need to do is satisfying. Try and get the game during a sale because the 13 euro price tag is just slightly steep compared to the amount of game time you get out of it. I am very much looking forward to the fourth game in the series which is called We Were Here Forever. I will eventually be playing this one too and will certainly be writing a review for that game as well in the future.

Score:

8,0

+  Visually pleasing
+ More challenging puzzles
+ Great audio and music
+ Great Co-op game
+ Chapter saving system

– Slightly short and bland story
– Puzzles can be unclear at certain times