Pneuma: Breath of Life is a first person puzzle game. If your child has played similar games like Portal, they'll be in familiar territory here, as this is a relaxing, gently paced game that's all about solving puzzles with your brain rather than blasting enemies with your trigger finger.
Although there's a pseudo-philosophical storyline at under the surface here, there's no reading or real plot to be followed. Instead, Pneuma mostly sees you moving from room to room, attempting to solve the puzzle within with the power of your mind alone. With little in the way of gimmicks, most of the puzzles here can be solved by simply looking at things, as switches are activated, bridges are moved, and mazes navigated with a simple gaze or a glance. From simple puzzles that involve activating musical sensors in the right order (by looking at them); to more complex mazes, switches, and timers, there's a huge variety of different ideas here - and nothing in the way of pointers, hints or explanations to point you in the right direction. In Pneuma, when it comes to figuring out what to do, it's a case of trial, error, and blind luck alone.
However, while the content may be fine for younger children, Pneuma isn't the easiest of games to get to grips with. With some incredibly complex puzzles, and nothing in the way of a hint system, it's entirely possible to get yourself well and truly stuck - as we found out for ourselves. Many puzzles require some very precise analogue stick controls, and others you'll end up solving without actually knowing quite what you've done. Some, too, are particularly tricky - one late highlight being a puzzle where you have to look at a large grid of floor tiles, and change them all from blue to white. As soon as a tile disappears off screen, it changes colour, which sounds easy enough. The only issue is, as you're playing in widescreen, and therefore have a rather large field of view, it's very, very hard to only flip the one or two tiles you have left, rather than accidentally flipping everything around them.
A slower paced, tricky, thinking man or woman's game, this is one best left to the older players.
As a first person puzzling game, Pneuma: Breath of Life contains no mature content for parents to worry about. There's no gore, sex, violence or bad language here - it's just brain teasers from start to finish.
Age Ratings
Format Reviewed: Xbox One
