Kairo doesn't really have enough content to riff on for a blog title.

To be fair, Kairo never pretends to be anything more than it is: a minimalist, first-person, 3D exploration and puzzle game. There are occasional, Valve-like environmental hints at a backstory, but this is never emphasized or important. Your task is to, essentially, progress through the world -- solving puzzles to do so, where said puzzle-solving is done by shoving objects to move them into place, or walking over switches to activate them.

Not really having a narrative or meaningful exposition, Kairo tries to prop itself up with environmental intrigue (ala Myst). But, while Kairo's level architecture is occasionally interesting, the minimalist style leaves it with a general lack of detail. There simply isn't much of anything going on, here.

The game's puzzles are almost all simple: sometimes pleasantly so, sometimes insultingly. The pause menu has a helpful hint feature, so if you're really stuck in a room, you can ask the game for a pointer in the right direction. Unfortunately there are a few instances where this still isn't helpful, because the puzzle relies on some "outside the box" mechanic or idea that didn't even seem to be a possibility.

All in all, Kairo is an interesting design experiment, and a modest production effort, but there isn't really enough about it to feel exciting or even unique.

Better than: Dear Esther
Not as good as: Antichamber
Like I said at the top: at the least, Kairo seems to know what it is. It never comes off as pretentious or silly.

Progress: Finished the puzzles, only collected a few extra things.