Dimhaven: The Lost Source
Zadbox Entertainment/Blue Brain Games
From the people behind the rather excellent Quern, Dimhaven deposits you
on another island, this one a once lively tourist paradise but alas no
longer. Shrouded in clouds and mystery, you as Emily Ravenstone arrive
by parachute (what better way to start an adventure) on a mission to
find your missing Uncle.
Almost immediately there is a potential pixellated elephant in the room.
I like pixel art games, but I know many players don’t. What is odd about
this is that it plays in the first person, and I certainly haven’t
played a contemporary first person game involving pixels. The degree of
pixillation varies across the various game elements, but it is
unavoidably there. It was even more surprising given the visual treat
that was Quern. I hadn’t had a heads up, so my initial response was
‘what the?’.
It did seem odd, but very quickly it became clear that this was how
things were. Which for me was fine. It was lushly detailed, the
exploration was plentiful and the puzzling promised much. Touches like
the lighting and the colour palette weighed in, and while you may well
feel differently, for me the elephant was banished and the island
beckoned.
Obtaining a visa is the first requirement. Which you can imagine is not
as straightforward as it sounds.
Progression is linear, new areas opening up once you achieve what is
necessary and those behind you then being locked off. It didn’t feel
restrained though, each area being relatively large and sufficiently
challenging to be enticing. There is plenty to do, plenty to explore,
plenty to open and close and poke at in each location. Much of that
won’t be relevant to your progress, but it adds depth to the goings on.
The game uses both the mouse and the keyboard, the former to interact
with the environment and the latter for almost everything else including
moving around. Your curser is a small opaque circle fixed in the centre
of the screen, and moving it over hotspots will generate various action
icons. You can’t highlight hotspots but get close enough and a similar
circle will be generated indicating that there is something to do here.
Get closer still and position your curser, and the relevant action icon
will be revealed. Look, take and talk feature, as do icons indicting you
need to mimic an action (pull for instance) in order to engage.
The narrative didn’t really do it for me but the puzzling certainly did.
It won’t surprise you that you collect items and pieces of information
and have to piece them together to be able to move on. Finding something
is one thing; identifying how it relates to whatever is in front of you
is a whole other thing. I also like that doing something keeps alive the
prospect of undoing it, and that featured here. And when have I ever
said that my favourite puzzle involved kitchen cupboards and drawers?
To be clear, the puzzling is excellent.
The solving of which is assisted by a range of in-game tools. Chief
among these is a hint system accessed through the inventory page, and
which will progressively nudge you in the right direction.
You can also take pictures of anything you thing relevant, and review
them in your photo journal. More than that, you can annotate them in a
myriad of ways, and hold a photo in your left hand as you attempt a
solution. All of those elements are particularly helpful in effectively
tackling the conundrums.
You can save at will and to more than a single save point. Voice, music
and sound effects are all top notch so enough said about them. Ten or so
hours await you.
I played on:
OS: Windows 11, 64 Bit
Processor: Intel i7-9700K 3.7GHz
RAM: Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR4 32GB
Video card: AMD Radeon RX 580 8192MB
GameBoomers Review Guidelines
July 2026
design copyright© 2026
GameBoomers
Group
