Little Orpheus is a light platformer with a visual novel vibe.

In the 1960's Russia had a secret mission to explore the hidden lands at the center of the Earth. Bumbling cosmonaut Ivan Ivanovich accidentally got into the mining drill and ended up manning the mission. Three years later he returns and the throughline story is Ivan telling his story to an incredulous General Yurkovoi in both black and white animated interrogation room scenes and via extensive voice-over narration.

There are eight chapters in the main story plus a bonus untold tale. Each chapter takes about 20 to 30 minutes and is basically a side-view platformer though usually only one level with the challenges being jumping over pits and timing to avoid bad guys. Sometimes there are switches to pull and ore carts to move so you can jump higher which is almost puzzle-like but there are never any obstacles I would consider puzzles.

So the gameplay is not much but what you're really doing is enjoying the story being told and watching the great backgrounds (the game uses a 3D engine so even though you're basically moving in 2D there is a lot of stuff going on in the foreground and background. The story is fantastical and fairly 1950's sci-fi hilarity. The ending gameplay is a bit simple to win and the story at the end doesn't quite do it for me either but it was still an enjoyable and kind of relaxing experience.

The bonus level is more of the same though the ending fight is quite different as you're playing a side-scrolling air ship vs bad guys coming from the right, though it's a fairly simplistic mini-game.

Once you finish level 7 you can replay levels and look for bonus orbs that unlock extra content like behind the scenes videos. I haven't tried it.

In the end I'd recommend this game for the story.