Review: Co-op Puzzle Adventure

The Short Verdict: Should You Bring a Partner?

Co-op puzzle fans finally have a reason to dust off the walkie-talkies. The series has traded snowy castles for a neon-lit 1980s laboratory, and the change mostly suits it. If you're deciding whether to split the cost with a friend, this We Were Here Tomorrow review focuses on what actually matters once you're both in the lobby: puzzle fairness, communication strain, runtime, and performance.

Here's the short version — this We Were Here Tomorrow review lands on a recommendation, with caveats. The puzzles are inventive, the retro-futuristic facility is the most visually interesting place the franchise has visited, and the campaign runs longer than its predecessors. The caveats are real, though: a few visual clues are too subtle, frame rates dip in busy rooms, and the gravity-shifting sections can genuinely upset your stomach.

It's a game built for two people who like talking through problems out loud. Come in expecting to describe what you see for eight or more hours, and you'll get your money's worth at twenty dollars.

Story and Setting: Antarctica, Neon, and a Very Chatty Director

You and your partner set out on an expedition to rescue fellow Explorers, become victims of bad timing, and end up trapped beneath the ice of Antarctica. Years pass. You wake in a Norček Industries facility with almost no memory of how you got there, and Director Kathleen Bowe is waiting with a job offer.

Her research team vanished mid-breakthrough, a global crisis is looming, and she needs two warm bodies to finish the work. What follows sends you through labs, common rooms, and testing chambers while the Director nudges you from objective to objective over the radio. What is Norček trying to achieve? Why were you brought here? What happened to the people who came before you? The game dangles those questions steadily.

The storytelling is more direct than in earlier entries. Instead of piecing events together from audio flashbacks, you get a character in your ear pushing the plot forward in real time. It works — the voice performance behind the Director is one of the game's genuine highlights — but it creates one very practical annoyance.

The chatter can step on your own voice chat. Because both you and your partner share the same radio channel, a story beat can talk straight over the sentence you were halfway through. Agree on a rule before you start: when the Director speaks, stop and let her finish, then repeat your last half-sentence. It sounds fussy until the first time you lose a critical clue under dialogue.

How the Asymmetrical Co-op Plays in Practice

The core loop hasn't changed. You and your partner are frequently separated, you each see a different slice of the facility, and the only bridge between your two screens is your voice. Describe what you see, share what you discover, combine perspectives, solve the puzzle.

What has changed is the balance between separation and shared space. In this entry you spend nearly as much time in the same room as you do apart, which opens up sillier possibilities — like shooting your partner with a goop gun or a sticky tentacle when you should be working. It's harmless fun, but it will absolutely cost you time.

Each player also gets their own high-tech tool, and each has a distinct role in a given puzzle. Neither of you can solve anything alone; the whole design rests on the assumption that the other person is describing their half accurately and honestly.

Standout puzzle mechanics and how to survive them

If a puzzle stalls, the most common culprit is an unread object. Flavor text about missing employees sometimes hides the exact clue you need, so before you redo a solution, sweep the room for anything you skipped. Duos playing in the same house can also swap seats for a minute to see what the other player is looking at — a luxury remote pairs don't have, which is why precise description matters so much.

Tips That Will Save Your Duo Time

• Name things out loud. "Blue lever, left wall, next to the vent" beats "that thing over there" every time.
• Confirm before you act. Most failures come from one player sending an item, current, or device before the other was ready.
• Keep a shared notes screen. Typing colors, wire orders, and codes into a chat window beats relying on memory.
• Take a real break after perspective-heavy sections. The wobbly feeling lingers longer than you expect.
• Check your microphone setup first. A bad headset will ruin the game faster than any puzzle will.

Performance, Price, and the Practical Stuff

A fair We Were Here Tomorrow review has to talk about frame rates. In more complex rooms — spaces packed with props, screens, and moving parts — the game dips below 60 fps on a high graphics preset on capable hardware. That may well be smoothed out in post-launch patches, but if you're sensitive to stutter, it's worth checking the system requirements before you buy.

At the time of writing, the store page shows a Mixed user rating, with 68% of 144 user reviews positive. That's a signal worth reading honestly: plenty of players are having a great time, and a meaningful minority are hitting rough edges. Steam Deck compatibility is listed as unknown, so don't count on handheld play.

There's no buddy pass here, so both players need their own copy, a microphone, and a stable connection. Cross-platform multiplayer is supported, which softens that cost if your usual partner games on a different system than you do.

What Lands and What Needs Polish

The runtime deserves emphasis. One duo hit eight hours with a substantial portion of the campaign still ahead of them, which makes this a better value proposition than several earlier entries. The trade-off is that some sessions will end in a puzzle you simply can't crack that night.

And that's fine, because the puzzle design mostly earns its difficulty. For this We Were Here Tomorrow review, the standout is how thoroughly the puzzles use the setting: shrinking down to guinea-pig scale, shuttling technology between time periods, and flipping the walls and ceiling into walkable floors all feel native to a slightly unhinged 1980s research facility rather than bolted on.

Who Should Buy We Were Here Tomorrow?

If you searched for a We Were Here Tomorrow review hoping for a simple yes or no, here it is: yes, with a headset and a patient friend. The rough edges are small and scattered rather than structural, and the good ideas arrive far more often than the frustrating ones.

FAQ

Is We Were Here Tomorrow worth buying?

For a duo that enjoys talk-heavy puzzles, yes. This We Were Here Tomorrow review found far more to praise than to forgive — inventive mechanics, a striking retro-futuristic setting, and a lengthy campaign for a twenty-dollar price tag. Go in expecting occasional unclear clues and performance hiccups, and you'll be satisfied.

Do both players need to own the game?

Yes. There's no buddy pass, so each player needs a copy, a PC-compatible microphone, and a broadband connection. Cross-platform multiplayer is supported, so mixing a PC and a console isn't a problem.

How long is We Were Here Tomorrow?

Longer than any previous entry. One pair logged eight hours and still had a meaningful chunk of the campaign left, so plan for multiple sessions rather than one long night.

Can you play it solo?

No. It's co-op only, with two players required, and the puzzles are designed around asymmetrical perspectives that assume two people talking to each other.

Do you need to play the earlier games first?

No. Every game in the series is a standalone online co-op adventure — the stories are loosely connected, but release order isn't required.