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The Library of Babel

The Library of Babel takes its short story inspirations and runs, crafting a compelling, strange sci-fi world that isn’t always as fun to explore as it is to read about, or just simply vibe in.
The Library of Babel Game Cover
57%Game Brain Score
story, gameplay
grinding
62% User Score Based on 29 reviews
Critic Score 68%Based on 5 reviews

Platforms

Nintendo SwitchXbox Series X|SPCPlaystation 5Playstation 4Xbox OneXboxWindowsPlayStation
The Library of Babel Game Cover

About

The Library of Babel is a single player platformer game with a horror theme. It was developed by Tanuki Game Studio and was released on April 6, 2023. It received mostly positive reviews from both critics and players.

Join Ludovik in a 2D Stealth Platformer and Graphic Adventure, as he explores the jungles of a futuristic Babylon to discover the secret behind the Library of Babel’s sudden lockdown and the mysteries behind their mythical creators.

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62%
Audience ScoreBased on 29 reviews
story15 positive mentions
grinding1 negative mentions

  • Beautiful and unique art direction with detailed environments and impressive cutscenes.
  • Compelling worldbuilding and an intriguing story that immerses players in a dystopian sci-fi setting.
  • Engaging puzzles and exploration elements that motivate players to uncover secrets.
  • Frustrating and repetitive stealth mechanics that lack depth and challenge.
  • Unreliable and clunky platforming controls causing imprecise jumps and frequent cheap deaths.
  • Confusing and ambiguous quest system combined with poor quality-of-life features leading to tedious backtracking and player frustration.
  • story
    37 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The story received mixed reviews, with many players finding it intriguing and well-presented but often hindered by confusing and unclear quest progression. While the narrative and worldbuilding were appreciated for their depth and atmosphere, issues such as ambiguous objectives, lack of direction, and pacing problems diminished overall engagement. Some praised the story as compelling and gripping, though others found it dull or disconnected from the source inspiration.

    • “Beautiful visuals, nice music, a good story, and challenging gameplay.”
    • “I'm really liking the game, the art is beautiful and the story is gripping.”
    • “The story is intriguing and keeps you interested.”
    • “It has some other significant problems, specifically with the quest progression. It has side quests but they are not really side quests; some of them are required for the story and there is no way to know that. Also, sometimes the main questline requires you to do random errands that are not listed in the quest log, so you either have to know from another player or be very lucky.”
    • “Sometimes you have a main quest that literally skips two side quests that you had to do to progress, but the quest says nothing about them, so you end up stuck in front of a locked door with no clue why.”
    • “There is a quest tracker but it doesn't tell you where things are, which makes following the story and quests confusing and frustrating.”
  • gameplay
    27 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The gameplay receives mixed feedback, praised for its challenging puzzles and atmospheric stealth elements but criticized for sluggish controls, repetitive and shallow stealth mechanics, frustrating platforming, and poor pacing. Many players find the core gameplay boring or monotonous, with limited variety and quality-of-life issues like scarce checkpoints exacerbating frustration. Despite these flaws, some appreciate the game's artistic ambition and story, though gameplay often detracts from the overall experience.

    • “Beautiful visuals, nice music, a good story, and challenging gameplay.”
    • “The stealth sections add a layer of tension to this overall very mysterious world, things are not given to you straight away, a refreshing change given the current trends of assisted gameplay other games have.”
    • “This game is a complete piece of art and a lovely tribute to classics like Flashback or Another World with a cool twist using stealth mechanics.”
    • “The gameplay is absolutely boring and repetitive.”
    • “The strange jump mechanic where you end up hanging on ledges more often than actually making jumps is an odd choice.”
    • “On the one hand you've got amazing visuals, moody atmosphere, great character designs & wonderful ambient sounds but on the other hand there's sluggish controls, bad pacing, shallow gameplay and genuinely lacking story pay-off.”
  • graphics
    12 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game's graphics are widely praised for their beautiful visuals, moody atmosphere, and unique comic book-style art, which effectively enhance the storytelling and world-building. While some find the visuals consistently captivating, a few users note that gameplay issues can detract from the overall experience. Overall, the graphic style is considered a standout aspect that greatly contributes to the game's appeal.

    • “Beautiful visuals, nice music, a good story, and challenging gameplay.”
    • “On the one hand you've got amazing visuals, moody atmosphere, great character designs & wonderful ambient sounds but on the other hand there's sluggish controls, bad pacing, shallow gameplay and genuinely lacking story pay-off.”
    • “For the first 5 hours or so I didn't have any big problems with the game, yeah it was a little repetitive, but the visuals and the world-building were interesting enough to keep going. The game is extremely pretty in some locations.”
    • “For the first 5 hours or so I didn't have any big problems with the game. It was a little repetitive, but the visuals and the world-building were interesting enough to keep going. The game is extremely pretty in some locations.”
    • “Flashback vibes with top comic book style graphics.”
    • “The art style is exceptional.”
  • music
    4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The music in the game is well-received, featuring nice and dynamic tracks that enhance the gameplay experience, especially in exploration and hub areas. Sound cues are also appreciated for adding to the immersion.

    • “Beautiful visuals, nice music, a good story, and challenging gameplay.”
    • “The music and effects are also quite good.”
    • “The dynamic music in the hub is pretty great!”
  • atmosphere
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    The game offers striking visuals, a moody atmosphere, and immersive ambient sounds that enhance its character design, but these strengths are somewhat undermined by poor pacing and gameplay shifts in the latter half, where low-quality platforming detracts from the initially compelling stealth and atmospheric experience.

  • character development
    2 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Character development is visually impressive with strong character designs and a captivating atmosphere, but the story lacks depth and satisfying progression, resulting in shallow narrative payoff.

  • grinding
    1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative

    Grinding in the game is somewhat mitigated by the availability of fast travel once unlocked, but players still find navigating the areas tedious and time-consuming.

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2h Median play time
2h Average play time
2-2h Spent by most gamers
*Based on 1 analyzed playthroughs
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Frequently Asked Questions

The Library of Babel is a platformer game with horror theme.

The Library of Babel is available on Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, PC, PlayStation 5 and others.

On average players spend around 2 hours playing The Library of Babel.

The Library of Babel was released on April 6, 2023.

The Library of Babel was developed by Tanuki Game Studio.

The Library of Babel has received mostly positive reviews from both players and critics. Most players liked this game for its story but disliked it for its grinding.

The Library of Babel is a single player game.

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