# Order of the Sinking Star

25 Hacker News commenters recommended Order of the Sinking Star and 12 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People praise its deep, simple puzzle mechanics and polish, though it is very long and slow-paced, and critics find it repetitive and its story hard to follow.

## Why people recommend it

- Deep puzzles from simple mechanics (4 comments): "This trumps every other game in the genre. Beautifully simple concepts that compose into deep, comprehensive puzzles." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50031633)) "it's more about how many interesting permutations there are, not really just about length or quantity" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114492)) "elevates the mechanic in complexity and feels like a very satisfying moment" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114009))
- Polished and fun to play (4 comments): "The game is not for me... but god damn it's polished" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114852)) "Very polished game, and fun." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50116650)) "I've thoroughly enjoyed it so far." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50117648))
- Good value for its length (3 comments): "I'm positively surprised with the price, most just-released games these days are pushing $100 USD." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50131302)) "30 hours of great gameplay for 30 bucks" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115053)) "I'm treating it as a casual game that I pick up and play a bit at a time, so the length is a plus" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50117743))
- Teaches new methods without guides (2 comments): "introduce and teach new methods without needing an external guide" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115888)) "if I stop playing for more than a couple of days I'll forget half the stuff I learned" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115082))

## What people warn about

- Long and slow to get going (3 comments): "Being really long or having a huge completion time for the sake of it seems like a big step backwards" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114412)) "It just asks the player to slow down and listen for just an hour." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50123122)) "It's waaaay too slow to do anything difficult." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114715))
- Puzzles become repetitive over time (3 comments): "after that, it starts feeling much more repetitive. Smaller ideas are stretched much further" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114110)) "it doesn't remain satisfying or engaging for very long, it just becomes repetitive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50113965)) "You just repeat the same type of puzzle over and over." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50113647))
- Story and themes revealed too late (2 comments): "it didn't really saying anything insightful about the themes and also didn't even hint at them until you're 30+ hours in" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50126331)) "he doesn't do it in a way that makes you feel like you're learning anything until the very end" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50114981))
- Feels like a chore to play (3 comments): "make the large amount of content feel more like ongoing fun than a huge homework assignment" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115416)) "It only tests a player's desire to sit through your bullshit." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50121813)) "The point I'm making the game doesn't respect my time." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50115917))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Outer Wilds](https://hackerapproved.com/p/outer-wilds.md): 65 recommend
- [enclose.horse](https://hackerapproved.com/p/enclose-horse.md): 64 recommend
- [The Witness](https://hackerapproved.com/p/witness.md): 60 recommend
- [Braid](https://hackerapproved.com/p/braid.md): 36 recommend
- [Blue Prince](https://hackerapproved.com/p/blue-prince.md): 30 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Order of the Sinking Star", https://hackerapproved.com/p/order-of-the-sinking-star/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).