Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? is a first-person puzzle adventure game that casts you as Henry Stanley, the intrepid reporter on a quest to find the missing explorer Dr. Livingstone in the African jungle. In this reversed escape room experience, you’ll navigate through detailed environments, solve intricately designed puzzles, and piece together the narrative. While the atmospheric setting and well-structured challenges captivate, some players might notice repetitive soundtrack elements and occasional color palette limitations.

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?: Review

Introduction

The immortal phrase “Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?” echoes through the annals of colonial history, evoking the 1871 meeting of journalist Henry Morton Stanley and missionary-explorer Dr. David Livingstone in Africa. Vulpesoft’s 2021 puzzle-adventure game, Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?, reimagines this pivotal moment not as a triumphant encounter, but as a melancholic mystery set within the explorer’s enigmatic Tanzanian home. As a first-person “reversed escape room” experience, it tasks players with venturing deeper into a series of interconnected rooms to unravel the fate of the vanished Livingstone. While the game excels in crafting intricate puzzles and a unique historical ambiance, it stumbles in its handling of colonial complexities and technical execution. This review dissects Vulpesoft’s creation, examining its narrative ambition, mechanical ingenuity, artistic merits, and historical legacy to determine its place in the pantheon of puzzle-adventures.

Development History & Context

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? emerged from the Polish studio Vulpesoft, a team with roots in larger AAA projects like Dying Light 2: Stay Human and Observer: System Redux. Under Creative Director Agata Leś and Lead Designer Damian Frycz, the studio sought to innovate within the saturated escape-room genre by inverting its core premise: instead of escaping confinement, players descend further into a labyrinthine mansion. This “reversed escape room” concept was born from a desire to create a narrative-driven experience where progression was tied to discovery rather than liberation.

Technologically, the game leveraged Unreal Engine 4 to render its hand-painted, stylized environments, targeting mid-range hardware (minimum GTX 650 graphics). The release in May 2021 coincided with a surge in indie puzzle games, but Vulpesoft’s focus on a non-Western, historical setting differentiated it. The team meticulously researched Victorian-era explorers and African motifs, though their interpretation would later draw criticism for sanitizing history. Notably, voice actors Simon Jackson (as Stanley) and John Colley (as Livingstone) lent gravitas to the characters, with Jackson’s performance particularly lauded for its warmth and authenticity. The game’s development was bolstered by demos showcased at events like the Steam Summer Festival, hinting at its polished yet niche appeal.

Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive

Set in 1872, a year after their fateful meeting, the game posits a fictional divergence: Stanley, en route home from Africa, receives a desperate letter from Livingstone pleading for aid. Upon arriving at the doctor’s meticulously maintained Ujiji residence, Stanley finds it eerily empty, its rooms locked and disarrayed. The narrative unfolds through environmental storytelling—letters, journal entries, and Stanley’s voiced observations—as players guide him through increasingly derelict spaces. Each room reveals facets of Livingstone’s life: the botanical chamber showcases his passion for flora, the clinic his medical work, and the memory room his personal struggles.

The core themes revolve around friendship, loss, and the psychological toll of isolation. Livingstone’s letters, penned in a shaky hand, hint at deteriorating mental health and a sense of failure, contrasting with Stanley’s unwavering devotion. However, the game’s treatment of historical context is deeply problematic. It portrays Livingstone as a benevolent hero who “angered at the slave trade,” while glossing over his role as a colonial missionary whose work facilitated European exploitation. Stanley’s narration similarly effaces his real-world infamy—his brutal tactics in the Congo Free State—reducing him to a sympathetic protagonist. This sanitization extends to the game’s climax, a poignant yet anticlimactic reveal of Livingstone’s fate that fails to engage emotionally due to its avoidance of historical reckoning. A pre-game disclaimer warns against treating it as “reliable history,” yet the narrative’s reverence for these figures feels naive, sparking unease in players aware of their legacies.

Gameplay Mechanics & Systems

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? is a masterclass in puzzle design, blending logic, observation, and tactile interaction. Players navigate linearly through seven themed rooms—Corridor, Kitchen, Office, Botanical Room, Clinic, and Memory Room—each locked behind a unique puzzle. The progression flows as follows:
– Puzzle Variety: Mechanics span from inventory management (e.g., balancing a spice scale in the Kitchen) to complex contraptions (e.g., aligning constellation dials in the Botanical Room). Tangram puzzles, gear assemblies, and riddles involving Victorian artifacts recur, but each feels fresh. For instance, the Clinic requires phrenology-based number sequences, while the Office demands a code derived from a charred journal and a coin.
– Interaction: The game’s standout feature is its direct manipulation of objects. Using mouse and keyboard, players physically turn keys, slide drawers, and rotate dials, enhancing immersion. A inventory system allows item inspection and disassembly—e.g., a monkey statuette yields a key upon disassembly.
– Challenge Curve: Puzzles escalate from intuitive (e.g., unlocking a mask puzzle in the Corridor) to fiendishly layered (e.g., the Clinic’s fluid-routing machine). Difficulty is balanced to avoid frustration, aided by a hint system: Stanley’s journal reveals narrative clues, while a separate “hint book” offers step-by-step guidance without spoilers.
– Achievements: 25 Steam achievements reward completionism, though two are contentious: “Nostalgic” requires triggering all of Stanley’s comments (a tedious, missable task), and “Fortune-teller” mandates using the hint system five times—encouraging reliance on aids.

Despite these strengths, linearity limits replayability, and some puzzles feel artificially convoluted, such as waiting 15 minutes for a clock to strike 9:00 for an achievement—a design choice that breaks immersion.

World-Building, Art & Sound

The game’s greatest triumph is its atmospheric rendering of Livingstone’s African-British fusion home. Each room is a curated museum of colonial artifacts: masks, spears, and botanical specimens blend with European desks and medical equipment. The Botanical Room, with its terrariums and kalimba, and the Clinic, replete with autoclaves and plague masks, vividly embody Livingstone’s dual identities as scientist and healer. The Memory Room, adorned with maps and ship-in-a-bottle sculptures, culminates in a miniature diorama of the house itself, symbolizing the collapse of order.

Visually, Vulpesoft opted for a stylized, low-poly aesthetic with hand-painted textures. While this approach lends a charming, storybook quality, the palette is dominated by monochromatic oranges, browns, and reds, evoking the African heat but resulting in visual monotony. Dust-mote effects and sepia-toned cutscenes attempt to enhance ambiance but feel underutilized. The sound design is similarly mixed: Hipolit Woźniak’s score, featuring djembes and marimbas, creates an authentic African ambiance, yet tracks loop relentlessly during puzzle-solving, becoming grating. Voice acting, however, is exceptional—Jackson’s Stanley conveys concern and weariness, while Colley’s Livingstone (via letters) exudes gravitas. Sound effects, like the clink of porcelain or creak of floorboards, ground interactions in reality, though the repetitive score undermines this immersion.

Reception & Legacy

Upon its May 2021 release, Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? garnered a mixed reception. On Steam, 75% of 98 reviews were positive, with users praising its puzzles and “beautiful” environments. Critics, however, offered more nuanced takes. Adventure Gamers awarded it a 50%, criticizing its “rosier version” of historical figures and “repetitive soundtrack.” Conversely, Lilly’s Corner lauded it as an “excellent escape room game” with “high quality voice-overs” and “immersive soundtrack,” giving it 90%. TechGoggles rated it 8/10, commending its writing and audio, while Nerdheim.pl awarded 9/10 for puzzle innovation.

Commercially, the game achieved modest success, bundled with titles like Aspire: Ina’s Tale on platforms like GOG and Steam. Its legacy lies in its niche appeal as a historically themed puzzler, though it did not spawn a sequel or genre-defining mechanics. The controversy surrounding its portrayal of colonialism sparked conversations about ethical game development, while its tactile interactions influenced similar titles in the “reverse escape room” subgenre. Notably, it stands apart from the 1987 platformer Livingstone, I Presume? by Opera Soft, sharing only a title and subject matter.

Conclusion

Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? is a game of compelling contradictions. It delivers a masterfully crafted puzzle experience, with ingenious mechanics, meticulous world-building, and stellar voice acting that transports players to a bygone era of exploration. Yet, its historical revisionism—sanitizing the brutal realities of colonialism—and technical flaws like a monochromatic palette and repetitive audio prevent it from reaching its potential. The game’s greatest strength is its ability to make players think, but its greatest weakness is its failure to make them feel the weight of the history it invokes.

For puzzle enthusiasts undeterred by historical gloss, it remains a worthwhile three-hour delve into a beautifully realized colonial mystery. However, for those seeking a nuanced critique of its era or a seamless audiovisual journey, it falls short. In the pantheon of adventure games, Dr. Livingstone, I Presume? is a footnote—a flawed but fascinating experiment that asks players to solve a puzzle, while simultaneously reminding them that some historical enigmas demand more than just a key.