The Library of Babel Review – A tale best told elsewhere

The Library of Babel is a brand new puzzle-platformer developed by Tanuki Game Studio and published by Neon Doctrine. The game features beautiful hand-drawn art, a peaceful yet ominous far-future world an a mystery for players to unravel as they venture across it.

The most notable thing about Library of Babel is the fact that the game is based on the short story of the same name. Library of Babel, written by Argentine author and librarian Jorge Luis Borges, conceives of a universe in the form of a vast library containing all written knowledge and stories.

The game by Tanuki Game Studio isn’t a direct retelling of the story. Instead, the game takes themes from the short story and uses them to tell a similar, yet unique story of its own.

The Story

Library of Babel takes place 20,000 years after the extinction of the human race. All that remains is a society of advanced robots. Though these robots were created by humans before the fall of civilization, they bare no memories of their creators and live in a society ignorant of what came before.

This society, though initially peaceful, is turned upside down by the discovery of a library that contains everything that ever was or will be written. The pursuit and acquisition of this knowledge drive many mad and is the focal point of the game’s story.

You play Ludovik, a Seeker (or “Robot Cop”) sent to investigate a recent murder in the city of Babylon. As you follow the trail of the murderer, a state of emergency is declared and Ludovik finds himself facing increasing danger as he tries to solve the mystery tied to the library.

The Game

Library of Babel combines the puzzle and platforming gameplay the genre is named after along with stealth segments, an interesting creative direction that attempts to separate the game from similar titles.

Of these design points, the puzzles are perhaps the strongest, with a few really good ones at points in the game. However, stealth and platforming both felt exceptionally weak. This was a disappointing realization as those are the main elements of the gameplay, and you’ll experience them often.

Platforming in the game requires some pixel-perfect jumps, and you’ll often miss a few jumps that you were certain you should have made. At times I felt totally unsure of where to start my jump, even with a running start, which destroyed my confidence for later platforming sections and made the game harder to proceed.

Backtracking is a chore this game will see you completing often, especially if you fail a jump. The game doesn’t contain a lot of checkpoints, so you’ll have to redo entire levels at times if you don’t succeed the first time. This is likely because the game features no combat, and you aren’t expected to be as bad the platforming or stealth as I was.

While I appreciate the idea behind including stealth segments in the game, I simply didn’t enjoy them. I can see their merit, however, and can see other players enjoying them where I didn’t, so I don’t really want to call this a flaw of the game.

The decision to make the player non-violent, relying on stealth and platforming, is definitely an interesting one. It would have been very easy to make this another hack-and-slash action platformer and I want to applaud the developers for trying something different.

Perhaps the biggest thing Library of Babel has going for it is the phenomenal art presented in the game. Inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ story of the same name, Library of Babel can very easily be considered a graphic novel depicting the tale – And honestly, the developers may have been better utilized going down that route instead. 

Each level contains an unbelievable amount of detail. The hand-drawn backdrops blend seamlessly with the platforming-level-design, depicting a lively yet drab jungle world. The black and white of the jungle scenes are often illuminated only by the midday sun or the stunningly bright full moon, creating a game that is truly a treat to look at.

Unfortunately, as it seems to be the case with so many games with beautiful art lately, I find myself wondering why Library of Babel had to be a video game at all.

While I’m definitely one to agree that video games as a medium are a fantastic way to tell a story, so many titles lately fail to justify themselves as a game at all. There has to be more than a story to tell, and it feels like so many developers are stopping at the story and treating the interactive nature of a game as an afterthought.

If your players aren’t engaged and interacting with your game, you just aren’t using the medium right, and while Library of Babel is a great piece of art, I struggle to call it a great game. While the story is great, Library of Babel is a tale that should have been told with any other medium.

The Library of Babel was reviewed on the PC. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles in the Game Reviews section of our website! The Library of Babel is available on Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Steam.