{"id":4393,"date":"2026-07-25T12:48:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4393"},"modified":"2026-07-25T12:48:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T12:48:51","slug":"what-surrounds-us-review-pc-steam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4393","title":{"rendered":"What Surrounds Us will make you think a lot about circles"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\"><em>What Surrounds Us<\/em> takes its title literally. You play as a circle surrounding a hole in its middle \u2014 it looks like a donut with frosting. You work together with other sentient moving circles, sometimes helping them joyfully meet with others. And you traverse a large map that\u2019s composed entirely of, you guessed it, a series of circles. But the circles everywhere aren\u2019t just an artistic choice; they underscore the game\u2019s themes about working in connection with the environment and the things around us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Despite the trippy design, <em>What Surrounds Us<\/em> has a familiar format. I kept feeling echoes of <em>The Legend of Zelda<\/em> as I trekked across three distinct regions and solved lightweight puzzles to get from place to place. Over the course of the game you\u2019ll get new powers, like the ability to traverse gaps by charging up a big leap. Later on, you\u2019ll have to find ways to get around a glitchy substance that frequently snakes around the world and blocks your path.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">The <em>Zelda<\/em> inspiration helped me settle into a game that offers little in the way of instructions. There\u2019s basically no text and only a few onscreen prompts to explain controls. That means that most of my time was spent exploring the world, seeing where I ended up, and experimenting with the limited tools I had to see what happened. That often led to happy surprises, like learning that using a ping near a dark circle would open up new paths forward. Sometimes, it got me in trouble, like getting too close to an aggressive enemy circle that would eat me.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Without frequent video game crutches like overly obvious hints or chatty sidekicks, I mostly had to figure out the rules on my own. Like in many <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2017\/3\/2\/14787082\/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-review\"><em>Zelda<\/em><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/23718926\/zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom-review-nintendo-switch\">games<\/a>, however, trying something just to see if it works \u2014 and finding that it would \u2014 was usually pretty satisfying. That experimentation also helped me better figure out how things in the game related to one another.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">Like what you actually do in the game, its meaning is left for you to figure out as well. Because everything in the game is a series of circles, you have to interpret what they represent, like learning that dark red circles that block your path essentially function as walls. When I brought over a lonely circle pal to another group of friendly circles, it spun and chirped in a way that I can only describe as jumping for joy. Even the music \u201csurrounds,\u201d in its way; it\u2019s ethereal and ambient, never overpowering your senses but also often humming quietly in the background as you wander around.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\"><em>What Surrounds Us<\/em> manages to do a lot of interesting things, both thematically and with its gameplay, and it does it all in a tight, three-hour playthrough. Who knew a cute little donut had so much depth?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1044qizi _18mzr4b1 _18mzr4b0 _19wv7tc1\">What Surrounds Us<em> is now available on PC via Steam.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/games\/961183\/what-surrounds-us-review-pc-steam\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Surrounds Us takes its title literally. You play as a circle surrounding a hole in its middle \u2014 it looks like a donut with frosting. You work together with other sentient moving circles, sometimes helping them joyfully meet with others. And you traverse a large map that\u2019s composed entirely of, you guessed it, a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,318,39],"class_list":["post-4393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-entertainment","tag-games-review","tag-gaming"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>What Surrounds Us will make you think a lot about circles - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What Surrounds Us, a new PC game on Steam, thoughtfully explores themes about working in connection with the environment and the things around us.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=4393\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Surrounds Us will make you think a lot about circles - 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