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Subscribe to the world's #1 PC gaming mag Try a single issue or save on a subscription Issues delivered straight to your door or device From£35.99Subscribe now Essential Hardware Abiotic Factor Dune: Awakening PC Gaming Show Recommended reading Its demo only took me 10 minutes, but this claymation picture book puzzle game inspired by medieval alchemy is one to watch out for Out of Words features one of the cutest videogame characters I've ever seen, but there's a tinge of Kafkaesque darkness to it, too This gravity-defying dungeon crawler is basically Legend of Grimrock meets Portal, and while the trailer had me dizzy, the demo made me feel like a genius Mio: Memories in Orbit has all the wonder of playing Inside for the first time and its devs are working hard to make it even better I'm always on the lookout for a good tile-based roguelike, and this Finnish fever dream of imps and ice trolls seems like it could have the juice The Shovel Knight dev's new gothic action game has a demo that has awakened the GBA kid in me Labyrinth of the Demon King review: A murky and disturbing traipse through a vanquished feudal Japan My heart's already been stolen by this stop-motion adventure made out of wood and 'mostly in a garden shed' Ted Litchfield 24 July 2025 "Every animation was captured frame-by-frame using real sets, hand-crafted props, and a physical wooden mouse." When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. (Image credit: Beyond the Bark) Éalú, from first time developers Beyond the Bark, starts with a strong premise: You are a mechanical mouse looking to escape a mysterious labyrinth. But its presentation is what really blows the doors down: Nearly everything is made out of wood, and rendered in full-on, stop-motion animation. Not real models keyframed to sprites either, such as the recent Judero or classics like Fallout and Doom: Every possible permutation of every scene in the game was painstakingly recorded and captured, with the real, physical labyrinth of Éalú (or at least its soundstage) living in a shed in a guy's backyard in Ireland. "Every character, set, and movement was animated by hand by a single animator (myself)," said designer Ivan Owen. "There is no sprite for the main character⁠—a clockwork mouse. Instead, I animated the mouse in situ in over 70 physical sets and created every single action it takes, resulting in 512 animation clips to create the experience." Related Articles Its demo only took me 10 minutes, but this claymation picture book puzzle game inspired by medieval alchemy is one to watch out for Out of Words features one of the cutest videogame characters I've ever seen, but there's a tinge of Kafkaesque darkness to it, too This gravity-defying dungeon crawler is basically Legend of Grimrock meets Portal, and while the trailer had me dizzy, the demo made me feel like a genius The result is delightful and somewhat unsettling, like a cross between Myst and Wallace and Gromit⁠—cozy, but also lonely, with flashes of something sinister here and there. Your little mouse is adorable and endearing, with tons of character to how he motors through each scene, idling by slowly rocking back and forth, his literal gears turning, maybe slightly impatient like Sonic the Hedgehog checking his wristwatch and looking at the camera. He can also suffer gruesome death. A wire sticking out of the corner of the room, perhaps the tail of a friendly fellow mouse in this lonely labyrinth? Clicking on it causes a giant (well, regular-sized) kitchen knife to fly out of the wall and chop our guy up. Another point of interest caused a wall to fall on top of the poor squeaker, crushing him to bits. Éalú - Gameplay Trailer - (Coming 10/2/25) - YouTube All great gags, but their final effect will depend on how failure will be handled in the final game: Right now, the puzzles are all reset and Monsieur Mouse wakes up back at the beginning. The death traps will start to get really old if M. Mouse doesn't get checkpoints or the Dagger of Time or something⁠—maybe reset him at the beginning, but keep the puzzles solved? But adequately cushioned, and paired with Éalú's melancholy isolation, I think Beyond the Bark is cooking with a really special, singular atmosphere. This is also a game where you'd want to take notes and/or draw your own map⁠—I was able to muddle through with keen gamer sense of direction only because I was just playing the early bits for impressions. The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals Keep up to date with the most important stories and the best deals, as picked by the PC Gamer team. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. Speaking as a dumbass, it did not take long until the puzzles in the labyrinth really started to stump me: The ones I saw felt very geometric and mental-math focused, like the toughest Breath of the Wild shrines or BioWare's many Tower of Hanoi puzzles if they seriously beefed up at the gym. For the first puzzle in the game, you have to rotate two halves of a broken heart to face each other, with two switches rotating both haves a mismatched number of turns clockwise or counter-clockwise⁠—it makes way more sense to see it in action. From there, the challenge started to really ramp up. The wordless presentation and sense of being, well, a mouse in a maze, are definitely part of the whole appeal of Éalú, but a visual or highlight-based optional hint system⁠—"Look here, numbnuts!"—would not go amiss in the final game. Image 1 of 4 (Image credit: Beyond the Bark) (Image credit: Beyond the Bark) (Image credit: Beyond the Bark) (Image credit: Beyond the Bark) That's a matter of taste, though, and I'm sure PC Gamer's true puzzle heads would rightly shove me in a locker for suggesting it: "Get gud or go back to Elden Ring, nerd!" The only real fault I found in Éalú's demo was a certain sluggishness to its controls. The mouse can be a bit slow to respond to commands, and I'd appreciate a bit more visual and audio feedback for both hovering over, and clicking on interactive bits in the environment⁠—nothing crazy, but maybe the audio equivalent of the lightest controller rumble for the former, and a woody tap for the latter. And never has a game demanded an aesthetically appropriate variation of the "little gauntlet cursor" more than this one. But a degree of latency certainly makes sense with Éalú's unique, basically FMV presentation, and it also isn't a dealbreaker in a slow-paced puzzle game. Éalú's audaciously unique look and sense of atmosphere are already carrying the day for me, and the team still has time to iron out the kinks. Now I just need enough people to check the game out for me to crib off their puzzle solutions. Éalú is scheduled to launch on October 2. While there isn't a public demo yet, you can still wishlist the game on Steam. 2025 games: This year's upcoming releases Best PC games: Our all-time favorites Free PC games: Freebie fest Best FPS games: Finest gunplay Best RPGs: Grand adventures Best co-op games: Better together Ted Litchfield Social Links Navigation Associate Editor Ted has been thinking about PC games and bothering anyone who would listen with his thoughts on them ever since he booted up his sister's copy of Neverwinter Nights on the family computer. He is obsessed with all things CRPG and CRPG-adjacent, but has also covered esports, modding, and rare game collecting. When he's not playing or writing about games, you can find Ted lifting weights on his back porch. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name. Its demo only took me 10 minutes, but this claymation picture book puzzle game inspired by medieval alchemy is one to watch out for Out of Words features one of the cutest videogame characters I've ever seen, but there's a tinge of Kafkaesque darkness to it, too This gravity-defying dungeon crawler is basically Legend of Grimrock meets Portal, and while the trailer had me dizzy, the demo made me feel like a genius Mio: Memories in Orbit has all the wonder of playing Inside for the first time and its devs are working hard to make it even better I'm always on the lookout for a good tile-based roguelike, and this Finnish fever dream of imps and ice trolls seems like it could have the juice The Shovel Knight dev's new gothic action game has a demo that has awakened the GBA kid in me Latest in Puzzle Its demo only took me 10 minutes, but this claymation picture book puzzle game inspired by medieval alchemy is one to watch out for Today's Wordle answer for Thursday, July 24 Today's Wordle answer for Wednesday, July 23 Today's Wordle answer for Tuesday, July 22 Today's Wordle answer for Monday, July 21 Today's Wordle answer for Sunday, July 20 Latest in News Satellite internet provider Starlink is down CEO of collapsing vtuber agency accused of withholding over $500K in charity funds takes 'full responsibility' and plans to shut it down: 'I've mismanaged the company into the situation you're all witnessing' I don't think they should make this Its demo only took me 10 minutes, but this claymation picture book puzzle game inspired by medieval alchemy is one to watch out for Final Fantasy 14 finally seems like it wants to make content scale to serve casual, midcore, and hardcore players: 'A deep dungeon for everyone' The Battlefield 6 reveal trailer is here, and not a single helicopter is safe HARDWARE BUYING GUIDES LATEST GAME REVIEWS Best PCIe 5.0 SSD for gaming in 2025: the only Gen 5 drives I will allow in my PC Best graphics cards in 2025: I've tested pretty much every AMD and Nvidia GPU of the past 20 years and these are today's top cards Best gaming laptop in 2025: I've put the best of this new generation head-to-head and we have a winner Best gaming chair in 2025: I've tested a ton of gaming chairs and these are the seats I'd suggest for any PC gamer Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads Killing Floor 3 review: Classic monster-killing fun Razer DeathAdder V4 Pro gaming mouse review Wuchang: Fallen Feathers review - A soulslike without a soul Abiotic Factor review Alienware Area-51 gaming PC review PC Gamer is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. 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