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 / 3,593 Views

The eyes of ara ceiling puzzle