Lok Digital review: a surreal puzzle game full of made-up words

At a glance, Lok Digital seems like another cute and clever word game, a perfect distraction to keep on your phone for idle moments. But look closer, and it’s clear something just isn’t right. Yes, it’s a game about creating words to fill out a puzzle board. Except those words aren’t actually real — and they all have special powers. Think of it like an alien take on Scrabble. It takes a while to wrap your head around, but Lok’s surreal setup makes for an excellent brain-scratching puzzler.

There is actually a story of sorts here. Lok takes place in a black-and-white fantasy realm, and your goal is to help little worm-like creatures progress through each level. The stages are grids of squares, and your goal is to turn each one black. (I have no idea how this helps the creatures move, but just stay with me here.) You turn them black by placing letters to spell out words. Completed words will black out squares, and certain words also have the ability to black out even more.

It sounds kind of weird at first, and that feeling is only exacerbated by the dictionary of words you’re working with. They are gibberish. The game eases you into this fictional language, though, slowly introducing new words that each add a new wrinkle to the puzzles. The word “Lok,” for instance, lets you black out any square on the board, while “Be” lets you write the letter of your choice on a blank square. As your selection of words grows, so do the techniques at your disposal.

Here’s a GIF that gives an idea of how it plays out:

I didn’t quite understand it at first, but Lok really clicked for me when I stopped thinking of it like other word games, such as Knotwords or Wordle. It’s a puzzle game, just one where certain combinations of letters are used to solve problems. You don’t need to think of the best words you know; you need to use the existing ones in clever ways to clear out every square. It feels immensely satisfying when you discover the right way to chain together gibberish to solve a puzzle. And while it can be difficult, the game does a great job of easing you along. It ramps up slowly, has a helpful hint system, and also provides an easy-to-reference list of all the words you’ve uncovered so far.

As a puzzler, Lok really nails the balance of challenge and scale, giving you bite-sized problems that still feel good to solve. It’s perfect for mobile where you might only have a few minutes to play (though the game is also available on PC and was originally a physical puzzle book). But it also goes a step further in creating an extremely chill vibe, with its lo-fi soundtrack and cozy monochrome visuals. It really does feel like you’re dropping into an alien world — one where you have to discover a whole new language to make it through.

Lok Digital is available now on iOS, Android, and PC.