A Little to the Left: Seeing Stars Review (PC)

Ever since A Little to the Left popped up on PC back in 2022, I’ve been living by an old saying: Cleaning your house is a never-ending task, but the joy of a clean space is timeless. Well, I like to believe that there’s some level of truth behind this, but I, too, own a cat, and therefore the joy of a seemingly clean house seems null and void these days. And yet, in spite of my best efforts to create a constant sense of nourishment and comfort in my own home, it seems that A Little to the Left has a way of making us believe that, clean energy or not, there’s always something else that needs tending to. Case in point, the developer has just released Seeing Stars— a DLC that also happens to include new obstacles and taunts to make you question, well, everything.

For the record, I did slug through the original chapter in the series when it first came knocking, and so, in my mind, I do meet the job criteria for the DLC. Well, saying that, there isn’t a great deal to meet, as the add-on, much like its standalone counterpart, more or less centers itself around the act of tapping, shuffling, stacking, and, if you can believe it, cleaning. And, whilst there is a little more to the process than that—a process that, for the most part, sees you toying with a few set pieces on a board until something, anything clicks—the vast majority of the game doesn’t feature anything overly perplexing. But, as always, it seems I’m getting a little ahead of myself, or at least, a little too far to the right when I should be strafing left. So, allow me to dial it back.

More Puzzles, More Solutions

To put you in the picture, A Little to the Left: Seeing Stars is an add-on to the original puzzle-centric world that launched back in 2022. In a similar format as its next of kin, the DLC sees you navigating a series of cleanup operations across a myriad of locations. Also like its predecessor, it presents you with an array of possibilities for completing each puzzle, with each one in the book coming with five solutions, as well as a nifty in-game hint system to help point you in the right direction. In a nutshell, it isn’t all that different from its other DLC cousin, Cupboards & Drawers—yet another post-launch addition that introduced an entirely separate web of puzzles, clues, and solutions. The only major difference here, however, is that it doesn’t restrict itself to just one or two layers and themed rooms, but a much, much wider palette.

Seeing Stars brings a total of 33 extra levels to the core game, and so, naturally, it doesn’t overstay its welcome by sporting a drawn-out campaign that overshadows the original. In fact, it doesn’t linger on the tongue that much at all, as the vast majority of the levels that it does bring to the table can quite easily be completed in a couple of minutes or less, depending on how frequently you use the hint system, and how quickly you put two and two together to formulate some sort of plausible solution. To make it abundantly clear, though, there isn’t a huge amount of added content here, and so, while it does offer a few more splashes of paint to the base canvas, it doesn’t quite conjure a portrait of its own. But it’s DLC — so we’re willing to let a lack of material slide.

Riddle Me That

As far as gameplay goes, not a whole lot has changed since the series’ initial launch. Case in point, the series of tasks that you embark upon are either made up of several set pieces, tools, plants, or stars among the cosmos—items that you must either rearrange to form a neat art installation of some kind, or shuffle around to create something that’s both functional and elegantly satisfying to the naked eye. But of course, as A Little to the Left is, in most cases, a puzzle game, several of these tasks often require a bit of extra time to complete, which means you cannot simply stack a few pots in size order and roll on to the next objective. Truth is, there’s often a lot more to it than that, and it’s up to you, the eager beaver with a curious eye for perfection, to solve it.

As with any puzzle game that leans on all of the trappings of a cozy yet contextless blueprint, A Little to the Left: Seeing Stars doesn’t always make a great deal of sense. In fact, even when the goal is made to feel clear and within reach, chances are, there’s an entirely separate method for achieving it. And I’ll be honest, it doesn’t take long to realize that, even with multiple solutions to each of the trials, locating the answers can be a little perplexing and, in rare instances, fairly time consuming. But thankfully, the hint system is always there to scoot you in the right direction, and it does its job remarkably well by lending you all the right tools to knuckle in on an issue and crack it without resorting to any lengthy tutorials or consequential changes. And I think I speak for everyone when I say — phew.

Playing With the Stars

From a visual standpoint, Seeing Stars is as equally charming as its predecessor, in the fact that, when it comes to glossing over the set pieces and snapping them into the appropriate locations, everything is given the opportunity to feel soothing and cozy. And honestly, that’s essentially what this DLC is: a warm and atmospheric interactive art piece that, while not graphically perfect, bears all of the elegant bells and whistles of a lighthearted puzzler with a whole lot of heart and soul. Its music, too, is just as harmonic as its counterpart, and is a complimentary addition to what is otherwise a deeply familiar experience. The fact that its score isn’t a mere rehash of its original, too, is yet another reason why we’re willing to sing its praises. It could’ve been lazy and reused a lot of the same material — but it didn’t, and I’m grateful for that.

When all’s said and done, a DLC is a DLC, and so, while there isn’t a lot to comment on from the outside looking in, it does seem only right that we summarize its greatest strengths and weaknesses. On that note, Seeing Stars does boast a lot of great additions to the original game. However, to say that it’s a DLC that we need might be a bit of a stretch, as it is, more or less, a souped-up version of the same game, only with a few more building blocks to toy around with. But that’s fine; if you enjoy the idea of rearranging furniture and decorations that much, then it shouldn’t really matter.

Verdict

For a paid DLC, Seeing Stars does manage to justify its price tag by offering a generously lavish range of unique puzzles and interactive solutions. To say that it has ascended from its past mistakes wouldn’t be entirely accurate, as the original chapter didn’t have all that many hiccups or technical issues, to begin with. No, if anything, it has figured out how to capitalize on its core strengths and its ability to generate an oddly satisfying message that, while not entirely perfect, still has the power to get the point across every time without fail. To reiterate, A Little to the Left isn’t a difficult game, in general, nor is it exactly laden with more balls than it can dare juggle, so while I am able to compliment it in short bursts, I can’t quite bring myself to staple it into a glossary of niche concepts.

Of course, if you’re relatively new to the series, and have yet to find your fill in the first few dozen or so levels, then chances are you’ll enjoy onboarding yet another batch in this nifty little expansion. If, however, the original chapter in the saga didn’t quite do it for you, then I personally wouldn’t go into Seeing Stars with the hopes of finding something even remotely different to what A Little to the Left captured in the its initial web of puzzling nodes. It’s swings and roundabouts, really.