ReThink 5

ReThink 5 is the latest game of the classic ReThink series.

I don’t really know what to think about this game, it feels more like a test game rather than an actual improvement or real addition to the series. ReThink always got better and better, culminating in ReThink 4 which was an excellent game that set the bar extremely high.
And thus, I had high expectations for ReThink 5, which were unfortunately not met. The game is back to a normal difficulty, close to what the hardest Evolved games offer. I don’t like it, and I’d really like to know the proportion of players that prefer it like that.

Anyway, the structure of the game changed in ReThink 4, ending the fully linear progression in exchange for open areas that let you choose which puzzles you want to do first. ReThink 5 continues that, you need to collect keys by solving puzzles to open doors and progress, so you can try several puzzles at a time.
There are also a few optional puzzles this time, they are a bit harder than the mandatory ones and solving them gives you keys that unlock the last area. Why not, making the hardest puzzles optional can lessen frustration for some people. Even though, apart from the very last puzzle of the last area, the difficulty difference between mandatory and bonus puzzles is hardly noticeable in ReThink 5.

The puzzle design feels lazier than in previous titles. There are no interconnected puzzles, no moving walls, and the puzzles play a lot less with angles and mostly stays on the same plane. It just feels less inspired, the structure of the areas is also pretty much the same each time.

All the mechanics from the previous ReThink games are there and a new one is introduced, the wayfinders. Sorry if you don’t understand a thing, that’s quite hard to explain.
So, wayfinders are colored moving crystals that change the color of the laser sources when they move across the button linked to those lasers. They follow the path traced on the floor and this path has intersections that can make crystals turn. To do so, you need to light the correct corresponding symbols with the lasers first. The goal is to guide them through the correct path until they all reach their destination.
That’s an interesting mechanic, though very hard to think about as the lasers constantly change. It’s also weirdly implemented for the moment, the crystals respawn and start moving as soon as you move anything in the puzzle. You can control their speed and make it 0 to make them stop, but it’s a bit annoying to constantly change it from 0 to the max and vice versa. A button on the wall that activates/deactivates the crystals would probably be useful.
We’ll see how this mechanic will evolve, it stays relatively basic in ReThink 5 and clearly has potential to make incredibly tricky puzzles.

While playing ReThink 5, I had the feeling that a lot of the mechanics were underused. ReThink is a series so rich in mechanics now that it becomes very hard to fit everything into a single game, especially if you don’t want the puzzles to be hard. Like I love colored panels, but they are only used to choose a path through very easy puzzles. Or the crystals that create a colored zone around them, there are like 2 or 3 puzzles that include them.
If the puzzles were more memorable, maybe I would be less annoying about that.

I know that everything I wrote is mostly negative, but you can’t analyze this game without comparing it to the previous one, which was really massive. And, despite still being a good game, ReThink 5 ultimately completely fails to maintain the dynamics the series had until now.
Recommended if you want more ReThink.

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Developer: Yaeko
Publisher: Yaeko
Platform: Steam – Windows
Release Date: June 24, 2024