Pleh! for Windows

2D puzzle game with a twist

In Pleh!, developer Jester Games takes a seemingly innocuous and even cute 2D puzzle platformer game and embeds unexpected psychological horror into it, crafting a brilliant, free-to-play piece that will occupy a player’s mind even hours after finishing it. You have to guide Pluto out of the spaceship he’s stuck in, but this isn’t as easy as it seems.

Pleh! is another indie title that starts off cute and fun, but it’s only a matter of time before things get twisted and scary. The game tackles heavy themes like social anxiety, depression, and suicide, so it’s not for everyone.

Solve puzzles and try to escape

In Pleh!, you get to play as Pluto — a cute little 2D astronaut who’s currently stuck in a spacecraft and needs to escape it. To do so, you have to solve puzzles and move on to the next levels, which you can do by pushing cubes on buttons, activating levers, sliding through air holes, and more. Then, the game will begin to glitch around the fourth puzzle.

Shortly afterward, you will be taken to a faux ending screen — and, this is where the game begins for real. The main objective stays the same; you still have to find your way out of the spaceship. However, the gameplay will switch between 2D and 3D modes, which can be jarring, but overall contributes to the building tension and atmosphere of the game.

Random messages written in an eerie font like “You should quit!” appear randomly, and some of the 2D levels are repetitive in purpose, in an attempt to throw players off-kilter. In addition, the heavy themes of social isolation, depression, and suicide that will be encountered as the game progresses may be triggering for some players. There are also flashing graphics to be taken note of.

Not for the faint of heart

In sum, Pleh! is definitely worth a try. While it’s surely not for the faint of heart, it does offer a solid gameplay experience that involves both 2D and 3D aspects. The change between the two different perspectives can get jarring, but that certainly adds to the overall atmosphere of the game. It also explores heavy themes like depression and social anxiety, which can either get deeply personal or utterly terrifying.