Déjà Vu review

Déjà Vu doesn’t have a concrete story per se (not to be confused with the point-and-click game Déjà Vu) as it is a minimalist puzzler about life, death, and clones. Players are tasked to solving puzzles and overcoming obstacles in order to complete the level and reach the next one.

Déjà Vu is a quirky little puzzler where players need to make it from point A to point B. While this may sound simple enough, it can get tricky at times. The game features 49 levels all of which have their own little puzzles to solve. The formula doesn’t change much from level to level, however the further you progress through the game, the more difficult the puzzles become.

While early puzzles will simply have you move from point A to point B (yellow square) by avoiding obstacles or roaming around short labyrinth-like levels, at one point you’ll have the skill to generate a clone of yourself which becomes vital in order to solve some of the more complicated puzzles.

Your newly created clone will mimic your movement and stop in the last place you stopped moving and generated your clone, so that means you can’t move it. You can also “kill yourself” and generate a clone that will block the obstacle allowing you to proceed. If you get hit by a laser and generate a clone, the clone will “die” and you’ll be able to use it as a block. The problem is sometimes the game will glitch and your clone won’t follow your actions which can cause unnecessary frustrations especially if you were about to solve a puzzle. Thankfully the B button allows players to reset everything.

Much like its overall minimalist gameplay, Déjà Vu’s presentation is as minimalistic. The level backgrounds are white and the levels include your destination (yellow square), green squares which act as switches and your blocky self. There’s no a lot to say about it, but it matches the game’s minimalistic premise. Sounds wise, there’s really not much to say. The soundtrack is quite relaxing and soothing; perfect to help you keep the focus on the task at hand.

Déjà Vu is a fun and interesting minimalistic puzzler. The game is perfectly balanced so that puzzles will become progressively harder to figure out and solve as you near the final puzzles. Some of them are maybe too simplistic, but others will require you to rack your brain to figure out. If you need a game to relax with and/or work your brain, Déjà Vu is the one you’ll want to play.