Elsinore Critic Reviews

There’s a lot of joy to be had uncovering Elisnore’s emotionally-loaded secrets and, providing you don’t push it too far, playing characters off against each other. Just don’t expect everyone to get a happy ending.

Putting my issues aside, the idea of participating in a full-fledged Hamlet universe works astonishingly well in Elsinore, and in contemporary society where classic literature is losing popularity, making such content accessible to a new audience is admirable, and I can only appreciate the ambition to revive Shakespeare through my favorite medium. Elsinore might be tedious at times, but I suppose that only enhances its status as a modern and authentic take on Hamlet.

To play, or not to play? If you like Shakespeare, definitely. But even if you dozed through high school English, the clever premise and time-loop puzzling make Elsinore a world worth exploring.

Elsinore is a game with a specific audience in mind. Lovers of Shakespeare and point-and-clicks will enjoy unraveling mysteries and creating alternate endings to Hamlet. While the game probably won’t entice anyone outside of that core audience, it still solidifies Golden Glitch as a studio to watch. This game proves that they’re a creative team with a talent for weaving story and gameplay together into a compelling whole.

Elsinore is simple and focused, aimed squarely at avid readers who want to manipulate Hamlet with their own hands. It succeeds at this, building a wonderfully meta-textual world that's fascinating to unravel and earns a good few gasps, laughs, and tearful moments, but the long waiting periods and frustration between different events overlapping can grate on after a while. Elsinore is time-looping <em>Hamlet</em>, and that premise is what will likely hook you or not.

Elsinore is like a beautiful little onion, and peeling away the layers over the course of a playthrough is sheer pleasure.