Uncompromising difficulty with no hand-holding
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“there's absolutely no handholding, so every achievement you get, every glyph you decode, is because of your own abilities.”
Steam review · 5.7 h played ↗
Message From Aliens
Worth buying? What 101 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 101 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 96%Very Positive · 96%Artless Games2026Puzzle · Simulation · Casual
$9.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 3 h ago
The verdict
A brutally difficult, no-hand-holding alien-language deduction puzzler that leans heavily on math and science. Skip it if you want a casual linguistics game or dislike arithmetic.
Great for
Math, science and Chants of Senaar fans who love decoding with no hints and don't mind Googling
Main risk
Expecting a language game and getting hours of unguided base-7 math and science
What players love
Great for math and science lovers
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“7/7 recommend for any math/natural science enjoyers.”
Steam review · 17.9 h played ↗
Deeply rewarding aha moments
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“Nothing to tell you you've got the right answer except having things stat to make sense. So many 'AHA!' moments.”
Steam review · 10.6 h played ↗
Entire interface is in the alien language
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews
“having the entire user interface be in the alien language (including the settings menu) and part of what's help you with your translations through cause and effect, is absolute genius.”
Steam review · 5.9 h played ↗
Unique first-contact fantasy
Mentioned in ~1 in 16 positive reviews
“If you have ever wondered what it feels like to be an alien deciphering the golden disks on the Voyager spacecraft, you will get it with this game.”
Steam review · 1.2 h played ↗
Generous demo and progress carry-over
Mentioned in ~1 in 16 positive reviews
“The save is auto migrated, so you don't have to worry about losing progress and can try it out as much as you want.”
Steam review · 11 h played ↗
What players complain about
Mostly math, not the linguistics advertised
Mentioned in ~3 in 4 negative reviews
“This is not a linguistics game, it's a goddamn rocket science game.”
Steam review · 6.1 h played ↗
Obtuse and too demanding for most players
Mentioned in ~1 in 2 negative reviews
“I think it's obtuse on top of challenging.”
Steam review · 2 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Unknown
Minimum
OSwin 10
OSwin 10
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