Upon completing the game I was intrigued to know if there was some kind of special ending for collecting all of the extra objects and solving every last puzzle. While they may not progress the story I welcomed the extra puzzles for those moments that I was stuck and needed a break from a particularly baffling puzzle. When working on a puzzle it’s often unclear if you’re working towards the ultimate goal or a mere collectible item.
In addition to that there are a few types of collectibles sprinkled throughout the castle: coins, photos, figures, and colored orbs.
This object is obtained by solving several puzzles that feed into each other, ultimately unveiling the final object needed to reach the next part of the game. Each area has a blocked exit that you need a specific item to open. The title's progression is something of a puzzle in itself as well. To put that into perspective I spent roughly half my 10 hours of game time solving 4 puzzles near the end of the game, and the other half solving the other several dozen. Some of the puzzles very late into the game had me seriously worried that I wouldn’t be able to finish The Eyes of Ara, but with some perseverance (as well as pencil and paper) I was able to achieve that euphoric sense of satisfaction by overcoming what initially seemed insurmountable. I came to appreciate that there was no crutch for me to lean on and I couldn’t simply have the answer given to me after a couple failed attempts.
#The eyes of ara puzzles trial#
I liked this approach, as it forced me to thoroughly examine my inventory, backtrack to search for additional information and objects, attempt different approaches to demanding puzzles, and occasionally just test answers through a trial and error method and make sense of the answer after the fact. These help you identify areas that need to be searched for clues or objects, but do not in any way help you to solve the actual puzzles. There are a few in-game options for hint modes, which I turned on somewhere in the second chapter. You’ll be tasked with using a multitude of skills in order to solve all of the riddles, which include math puzzles, logic puzzles, decoding puzzles, spatial awareness puzzles, pattern recognition, reading comprehension, mechanical puzzles, word puzzles, and often combinations of these. A moderate to high level of player intelligence is demanded fairly early on and the game only gets progressively more challenging as it progresses. You're briefly eased into the puzzle solving logic of the game and then abruptly pushed into the deep end of the pool of mysteries. If you're expecting a quick and easy puzzle adventure then you’ll leave The Eyes of Ara disappointed and unfinished. The puzzles presented here are largely not for the casual cryptographer. By the end of my time with The Eyes of Ara I was honestly surprised how invested I had become in a couple of the characters and solving the final mysteries of the game. It’s a simple and heartwarming story that gets entangled with the larger narrative of obsessive scientific research, stargazing, and a search for things beyond the Earth.
Journal Entries, children’s drawings, posters, books and scattered notes tell the tale of a reclusive man of science who takes in his sister and her two children in their time of need. The story of The Eyes of Ara is told mainly through various documents found around the manor. In the earliest 'training' section of the title, when you're simply entering the castle, you’ll find more evidence of these supernatural-horror themes, but fairly early on this gets replaced with what I felt was a considerably more interesting sci-fi infused concept that gets stronger the further you advance. It seems that the locals may be a bit superstitious and have heard stories about the castle being haunted, hence why they've brought you in from out of town. The only preamble before you disembark the small vessel is a one page note informing you that you've been contracted to enter the castle to find out what is broadcasting a signal that has been disrupting local communications for the past couple of weeks.
Other aspects of these games are usually secondary to this, but The Eyes of Ara produces one of those rare packages where the narrative and atmosphere stands on an equal footing with the impressive array of puzzles that drive the core of the game.Īs you drift towards an ominous looking castle in your row boat during the opening scene the sense of isolation is fairly immediate. It's very satisfying to solve the riddle that has been stalling your progress, or even to immediately put the pieces together and temporarily feel like a prodigy. When playing puzzles games of various styles my favorite aspect is - perhaps not surprisingly - almost always the puzzles themselves. By Kelsy Polnik, posted on 05 October 2019 / 3,517 Views
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