What’s Around Us will make you think more about circles

What Surrounds Us he takes his true title. You play as a circle with a hole in the middle – it looks like a donut with frosting. You work closely with other moving groups, sometimes helping them meet happily with others. And you go through a big map that’s designed around you, you just think around it. But squares everywhere are not a smart choice; emphasizes the themes of play in working in harmony with nature and the things around us.

Even making it trippy, What Surrounds Us he has a familiar face. I could hear noises The Legend of Zelda as I travel through three different levels and solve light puzzles to get somewhere. As you progress through the game you will gain new powers, such as being able to cross gaps by high jumping. After that, you have to find ways around a shiny object that likes snakes around the world and blocks your way.

The Zelda inspiration helped me settle into a game that offered little in the way of instructions. There are no words and few on-screen instructions to explain the controls. This meant that most of my time was spent exploring the world, seeing where I ended up, and testing the few tools I had to see what happened. This often led to surprising surprises, such as learning that using a ping near a dark circle opened up new ways to progress. Sometimes, it would put me in trouble, like getting too close to a group of angry enemies that would eat me.

Without regular video game crutches like visual guides or side chats, I often had to make up the rules myself. Like many Zelda gamehowever, trying something to see if it works – and finding out that it can – is usually very satisfying. That experiment also helped me to better understand how things in the game fit together.

Just like what you do in the game, the meaning is left for you to discover. Because everything in the game is a series of squares, you have to interpret what they represent, such as learning that the red and black squares that block your path act as walls. When I brought a lonely round friend to a group of chat rooms, it spun and cried in a way that I can only describe as jumping with joy. Even music “circulates,” in its own way; it’s sleek and round, doesn’t overpower you and hums to the ground as you move around.

What Surrounds Us it manages to do a lot of fun things, both in sequence and with its games, and it does it all in a difficult, three-hour period. Who knew the cute donut had so much depth?

What Surrounds Us now available on PC via Steam.