Don’t Look Back Review

Terry Cavanagh clearly knows how the human mind works. The developer of Don’t Look Back is also responsible for the painfully addictive Super Hexagon. Don’t Look Back started out life as a Flash game, but its minimalist nature, extending to the controls, means that it’s perfect for the touchscreen arena. One of the most endearing features of Don’t Look Back is that it doesn’t seem to make any effort to grab or hold your attention. The 2D pixel graphics are two-tone and there are only three controls master. But despite this almost lack of interest you can’t help but be sucked in from the very start as you try to solve each puzzle put before you. Without wanting to get too deep the story is loosely based on the mythical Greek tale of Orpheus, who travels to the underworld to try and retrieve his wife Eurydice. The original story tells of how Orpheus would only be able to save his wife if he didn’t look back at her as he led her out of the underworld. This is a feature carried into the game that makes the return journey much more difficult, in that you must not look back at any point, or you suffer the consequences.

There is a poignant finale to the game where the developer’s interpretation of the ancient story is revealed, and this is not something we will give away. Don’t Look Back may not look much, but the depth to it on a gameplay and indeed message level might be one of the biggest surprises you get from an iOS game.