Simon the Sorcerer Origins Review

After a 16-year hiatus, fans of Simon the Sorcerer will be returning to their beloved sarcastic 12-year-old. Now I have to admit, Simon the Sorcerer Origins is the first time I’ve played any of the franchise. So, I feel like this gives me a good chance to look into it. After reading my editor’s preview of Origins, I thought, “Oh, this sounds fun”, so why not give it a go?

When our eponymous protagonist is kicked out of school, he and his parents move to a new house to be able to attend his new institution of education. However, everything goes wrong after a brief tutorial where his mother tells him things not to do to ensure that you learn about the gameplay mechanics.

There are two versions of the controls: dynamic, which allows you to move around the locations to interact with objects, or the classic controls that will give you the point-and-click experience. As I was playing it on the PlayStation 5, I opted for the dynamic controls. While Simon is a slow walker, you can hold the right trigger to get him to run, which does make my life a little bit easier.

When Simon gets the key to his bedroom — in the sink, as all hidden keys should be — he tries to go inside, but instead, he is transported through a portal. Sordid (our antagonist) has been working on something, and the next thing you know, Simon is sent into a magical world where he learns from Calypso, an old wizard, that he is the subject of a prophecy. While you could argue against the prophecy, that would mean that you’re then completely erased from existence. So, it’s better to go along with the old wizard’s ramblings.

While playing, I had to admit that I enjoyed the way I could interact with the environment. Chris Barrie’s return to the franchise means that we can enjoy some witty banter (a bit more on that later).

The prophecy that Simon is involved with requires him to learn more about the First Wizard and his tomes to get back to his squalid Earthling life. To do this, he’ll first need to infiltrate the Academy, which has more Harry Potter references than I’d like. Imagine Hogwarts, except nobody actually cares and would much rather be anywhere else.

To get into the Academy, you’ll need to bypass a Troll, so this will require you to find a Pass, a Wand, and you’ve already got Calypso’s old uniform. That, and of course, Calypso has also offered you the opportunity to Fast Travel with your Map, and a Magical Diary to keep track of progress.

You’ll need to talk to the NPCs and interact with your surroundings further to get the Wand from the creepy shopkeep, Mundus, who, after a brief puzzle where you use your bartering skills to sell him a broken toy, you will get the Wand.

The Pass will require you to take it from the jaws of a vicious hound. It’s pretty straightforward, right? Just figure out how to distract him and then boom. You’ve got everything you need. Except the Troll recognises suspicious protagonists and will order you to do a magic trick. Thankfully, you don’t need to do much, because Calypso will inform you that Trolls are simple and will be impressed with any simple display of magic.

Now, this is just an example of the type of quest you’ll be looking at, and even Simon will point out that he’s being sent on another fetch quest. That kind of banter got a chuckle out of me, and it is a lot of the game. Most of it will require you to fetch items and bring them to a specific character or location. It can get repetitive, but you may be too busy pulling your hair out to notice.

After pulling something out of a hat, you’ll get into the Academy, but as I mentioned earlier, no one cares about their jobs. But maybe the headmaster will be able to help, but first you need to get to him. And this is where you’ll need to search the Academy for anything that could help you get into his Study. The puzzle itself to unlock Flambergo is a simple one, but if you don’t click and interact with everything, it may soft-lock you out. So, you’ll need to interact and pick up everything on your adventure to complete a puzzle that you probably already solved. However, I only found this was an issue after I had to go back to solve a puzzle in Chapter 5.

Now, thankfully, that puzzle was only in Chapter 4. However, I had to make detailed notes to see whether I was just dumb or if it had soft-locked me. For you see, one of the key features of this next puzzle is to make a Sleeping Potion. This requires Fairy Dust, Pickled Eyes and Eterna Felicis. However, the only potion you have available is Eterna Infelicis, and that will wreck the potion. The puzzle requires you to put this in order, and then you should, in theory, be able to season the Dungeon Troll’s Pack Lunch with it.

This would work if I could make the Potion. There are no hints to make the Potion of Eterna Felicis. The only hint was the Dodgy Ingredients in Chapter 4, but you can’t do anything with that after the dialogue. Try to talk to any of the NPCs, and they won’t have any dialogue options left.

Even if you try to give them an item from your inventory? Nope. I tried combining everything at my disposal, but nothing worked. And there’s no way to do anything else, so I had to wonder. Is it me? Am I the problem? Or has the game been soft-locked, leaving me unable to progress? I went so far as to restart the game and make detailed notes on everything I could find, but nothing helped. Arguably, I was so frustrated, I had to leave and scream into the void for a bit.

While fans of the series undoubtedly want difficult puzzles, and I’m not against them, but in theory, I already knew what to do. We need to consider that this isn’t just a game for fans, but for newcomers to the series as well. I don’t know if the same issue arises on the Steam edition of the game, but this is a significant issue that could impact the PlayStation 5 players (if it is a case of soft-locking).

However, I have to admit, that what I have played of Simon the Sorcerer Origins has been an interesting time. While I do wish that there was a cryptic book of hints that I could decipher when I’m stuck, I acknowledge that it is also the difficulty of the game. Even the developers themselves, Smallthing Studios, acknowledge the level of difficulty — especially to newcomers like me — and it is appreciated. Unfortunately, this might put newcomers away from the game, unless you enjoy a challenge.

For the sake of it, however, while the rating is for seven-year-olds and up, I did feel a bit daft until I realised that it’s just that challenging. If you want your children to suffer through the difficulty, then keep going. After all, you’ll get a good chunk of schadenfreude out of it. While you will hear Simon repeatedly asking “Why would I do that?” and “That doesn’t make sense”, or have his head transformed into a pixellated version of himself causing him to scream (a mood, Simon, I assure you), there’s a lot that could cause some fun suffering.

With a difficulty that would be perfect for masochists and fans of old, there are plenty of good things about Simon the Sorcerer Origins. I have to admit, I did want to brute force my way through puzzles, but hopefully, I’ll one day be able to complete it. But, in the hours that I have played? Well, it’s proven that there is a space for Simon the Sorcerer after thirty years. While Chris Barrie may not be the most convincing pre-teen, the animation and the amount of environmental storytelling used makes for a fun challenge for the experienced.