lingo is an exceptionally clever rule-discovery word game, designed around panels that prompt you with just a word (occasionally several) and a space to type in a response. figuring out how it works is a genuine delight and there's nothing else quite like it.
unfortunately,
lingo is also a fucking nightmare labyrinth of identical single-file hallways and silent one-way teleports. this becomes worse as you progress, because more paths open up, and they all look fucking identical — especially because the nature of silent teleports means the world needs to be obscured for the teleport, so most hallways are C or S-shaped and you can never see where you're going. there is fast travel of a sort, but it mostly takes the form of either (a) a one-way route that only works sometimes and you just have to remember when it works and where it leads, or (b) a nigh infinite number of shortcuts that take you back to the beginning of the level, the one place you do not ever need help reaching, because you can warp there from the pause menu at any time.
if you discover a new area, you had better not leave until you solve everything there, or so help you god you will never ever find it again. there is virtually no direction within the game, you cannot google hints for an obscure game whose name is a common word, and what hints you can find generally take the form of "it's near the SMITHEREEN panel" like you remember where that is or how to get there.
most of my play time has consisted of wandering around in circles. if i finally find some new puzzles i can solve them pretty quickly and then it's back to wandering. a number of the later-game """puzzles""" involve simply retreading the entire fucking map again, looking for a number of secret walls that have opened to reveal a new trivial non-puzzle.
towards the end you do receive a """"""""map"""""""" of sorts, which is almost completely useless — you can't readily tell where things are on it, it doesn't show hallways anyway, and there are so many silent teleports that even if two places seem to be right next to each other that means nothing about how they might actually be connected
technically this is all about "level 1". there is a "level 2" which is somewhat easier to navigate but still exhausting in its own right (and with harder, and often more ambiguous, puzzles). allegedly there are more levels but i have never found them. i thought i had explored level 1 pretty exhaustively and yesterday i finally checked how many panels i was still missing and it was one hundred sixteen.
and if you're missing something but can't find it then that's just kinda too bad. maybe you just never turned right at one of fifty intersections. good luck i guess, fuck you
it's weird. i don't think i've ever played a puzzle game where i've thoroughly enjoyed the puzzles but then come away feeling like i can't really recommend that anyone actually play the game