Is This Seat Taken? review: a perfect puzzler for chronic organisers

Is This Seat Taken? was designed, in a lab, to tickle my particular brain stem. It’s a game all about organisation, and for those who rule themselves strictly, it’s an excellent smorgasbord of tiny challenges. From design to execution, this puzzle game is very tight and precise. It’s the perfect length. The perfect level of challenge. And it doesn’t forget to be light-hearted and charming, even in its rigidity.

The core concept is very simple: you must organise a group of people, ensuring their needs are met. One person forgot to shower, and they want to be with their parent, Riley. That parent might not like loud music. Another person doesn’t like bad smells and/or cologne, but they love (and play) loud music. In each stage, you’re presented with a new flock (going to a cafe, going to work, riding a car, riding a boat) and must tend to their desires, while paying attention to the overlap.

In a perfect world, everyone is happy – so while the game does allow you to move onto the next stage with only some people served by their placement, the more satisfying challenge lies in tessellating everyone, to ensure they can enjoy their days.

Is This Seat Taken? is free of any friction

Is This Seat Taken? lets you puzzle freely, with minimal friction, but each solution must be earned. A simple snap-lock system lets you pick and place people in various scenarios, with swaps occasionally needed to figure out who goes where, and in what configuration.

Across multiple hours, you’ll journey from a car back seat, all the way to a crowded office environment, boat, concert, and photo shoot, in a whirlwind tour. The game balances its mounting difficulty well, always allowing time, and an ambient space to puzzle in.

The later stages are particularly fun to work through, as the game’s humour grows alongside its complexity. In one of these stages (pictured above), you’ll wind up having to organise a group of co-workers, with an array of hilarious and petty desires determining the final layout of staff.

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Some workers don’t like working. Some don’t like working, but they do need a computer to pretend to do work. These people shouldn’t be in range of the office’s general manager, or they’ll be caught out, to much grumbling and unhappiness. This stage also features another complication, in that you’ll need to work the AC to cool down those who’re hot, and leave those who are sensitive to the cold alone.

The game becomes a Tetris puzzle of sorts with these bounds, as you layer more complex desires, until you find the perfect pattern. Seeing the smiling, happy faces of your tiny friends is ultra-satisfying in this process, as is knowing your clever little brain is what inspired their smiles.

Is This Seat Taken? is a game that succeeds on this simplicity, with a strong core idea well-realised in a minimalist art style, and siloed puzzles you can tackle at your own pace. It’s never too complex or meanly challenging, but provides a smorgasbord of light-hearted and moreish challenges with little sparks of humour that keep you charmed by the experience.

It does a lot with very little, arriving as a wonderfully well-formed, confident puzzle game with a sense of freshness, style, and pizzazz that marks it out as exceptional.

_{A PC copy of Is This Seat Taken? was provided by the publisher for the purposes of this review.}

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