Crew 167: The Grand Block Odyssey released from Steam Early Access

Written by Jack Allin — April 11, 2020 at 12:41

We've all encountered puzzles that threatened to drive us crazy, but what if the puzzles we invent for ourselves are the only way to stay sane? This is the premise behind Crew 167: The Grand Block Odyssey, an indie sci-fi puzzler that has just emerged from Early Access.

Players control the titular crewman, who was sent out into space in search of a new planet to colonize when his home world was confronted with catastrophic climate change. Unfortunately, after a century in cryosleep, he suddenly awakens all alone aboard the spaceship. What's worse is that "the implant in his head has begun to show signs of malfunction and is starting to affect his mental health." To counter the effects of this encroaching madness, "his mind begins to create hallucinations to keep him entertained." As you "struggle to conquer the vastness of space and the confines of your own mind," you must attempt to "separate hallucinations from reality as ever more difficult block puzzles appear in your path. Will solving them lead to freedom and redemption? Or are you just building a prison... one block at a time?"

Described as a "puzzle game where you're rewarded with cinematic storytelling" through fully voiced cutscenes, Crew 167 presents 75 distinct sokoban-style puzzles to solve. All of them involve guiding blocks along their preordained paths to their correct destinations, as viewed from a bird's-eye perspective, but the challenges will evolve over time, adding new mechanics that are "cleverly introduced without tutorials." Only by working through these minigames will you be able to "dive into the mind of the character as he tries to make sense of the world around him."

Created by Canadian developer oddbreeze, the first chapter of Crew 167: The Grand Block Odyssey debuted on Steam Early Access back in October 2019. Now the complete version is finished and is available for download on Windows PC.