Nintendo Switch Review Code Provided by Oneiric Tales
Sometimes it is the most simplistic route that works best for a game. In the case of Oneiric Tales new puzzle game Path of Ra, that is exactly what they went with. With a dialogue-free storytelling style of an ancient Egyptian tale through the use of animated hieroglyphs and cutscenes, plus the simple art of how to play their game, this is one of the most straightforward puzzle games I’ve played.
Story
After being betrayed, a man seeks to find peace and to do so he passes through the life that he had lived. With his memories marked in the hieroglyphs, he sees how his choices and actions have affected those in his life and what led to his bitter end.
Again, this story is told completely dialogue-free, but that is the breakdown of the story in my opinion from what I saw. Perhaps it is slightly different in detail, but essentially he is going through the life told in the hieroglyph’s.
Gameplay
From the first puzzle, you will find that this game is very direct. Your goal is to get the man from his starting point to the doorway in order for him to proceed to the next page in the story. At first, it is just a matter of moving the tiles around so that he can run to the door, but as the puzzles go on, more obstacles and troubles make their way to be known.
The man only runs forward and can’t be altered, paused, or have his path change in anyway from he starts. This means the path has to be properly set from start to finish to be correct. If there is a tile that shows a floor, but no wall, he will run off the edge and die. However, it seems he is able to fall from heights as long as he stays within the puzzle, so don’t worry if he needs to drop two or even three floors below.
After some time, you will get used to the obstacles, such as the sand floor that drops below and the portals that make you teleport to a different spot. The goal remains the same, but getting there and hitting all the switches to either open the exit door, close a wall, or turn off a deadly trap obstacle is what brings the challenge.
Luckily, they are very giving with their hints in the fact that they don’t limit you to them at all. The clue is simple to where it just simply lays out a check mark on the tiles that are in the right spot and a red X mark on the tiles that are not in the right spot. There are some puzzles with more than one way to be completed, but the clue system will tell you the way that is intended. I don’t suggest using this often, but it is nice when you are stuck.
Audio and Visual
Both of these aspects of the game are just as simple as the gameplay design is. There is some music, fitting to the Egyptian theme of the game, but it is purely for background filler only. It isn’t anything that is going to grab your attention. The graphics are pretty much just like a blue moon shining light over the tiles, which is very Egyptian themed as well. The colors for the switches and portals help indicate their connections to each other and in the settings they even offer a few different color blind modes to help with accessibility. But to summarize the graphic quality, I would say that it has a cartoon-hieroglyphs style.
Replayability
Unfortunately, with this game not just being a puzzle game, but a simplistically designed one, I don’t see any reason to play the game more than once.
What It Could Have Done Better
I would have liked to control the character myself rather than having him just auto-run. While I get that the game was designed for him to auto-run, I just feel there would have been a better connection between the player and the gameplay if the control of the character was given to the player. Some of the puzzles would have needed to be reworked a bit, but I think it would have improved the gameplay experience.
Verdict
Path of Ra is a good puzzle game that kills a little bit of time. It is a rather short game to complete, but I did find myself wanting to keep going after I initially started. They did well enough to make the game challenging in a way that is fun to solve, but they should have made it longer and added more variety to the obstacles in the game. I hope to see more from these developers and that they go for a more player-controlled style next.
Path of Ra is available now on PC via Steam, Nintendo Switch, Android, and iOS devices.
