Plankton Games: Doctor Esker’s Notebook

I’d barely heard of Doctor Esker’s Notebook, and wasn’t even sure if it was a puzzle game or other sort of card game when the publisher sent me a copy to try. That’s always a risky thing for a publisher to do, since I’m fairly merciless about criticising bad or average games - but Doctor Esker turned out to be as pleasing a puzzle game as I’ve played in some time.

There’s little to classify it as an ‘escape’ game - no narrative to speak of, no time limit unless you wish to impose one on yoursel...