Puzzle games have an interesting way of putting players in unique situations, but also only barely explaining what is going on. While Two Mammoths don’t explain the “how” you are solving puzzles in Archaica: The Path of Light, they do provide you with both the “why” and “how-to” for players. All that’s left to know is if their atmospheric setup and puzzle designs are entertaining to solve, which I would say the answer is a frustrating yes.

Story

With the fate of the world under threat from impending disaster, it is up to you, the Light Bearer, to walk the legendary Path of Light. In order to save the world, you must revive mysterious artifacts, explore secrets of an alien civilization, and discover the true destiny of The Path as you traverse through multiple realms.

Gameplay

The entirety of the game is based on a simple puzzle mechanic. You have a laser beam, a bunch of mirrors, and an end goal location for the laser beam to hit. Move the mirrors in a way that will make the laser beam reach the levels target goal. Simple enough, right? Well, at first, but then it slowly gets tricky.

There are various mirror types you will come across including flat, angled, and what I call the splitter. On top of this, you will come across different laser beams with different colors and distance lengths. Oh, and let’s not forget that your end goal will change or have to be unlocked by reaching a mid-way goal that would trigger the level to shift a bit.

Taking all of these things into account, each level will need to be approached with a similar mindset and an open mindset simultaneously in order to be prepared for new ways to solve similar problems. Almost no two levels look the same or are set up the same, so be prepared for a variety of challenges because that is definitely this game’s strong suit.

When it comes to solving puzzles, it is interesting the way things work out. If you use a diagonal mirror and then have the beam hit another diagonal mirror, it will turn into a flat direction, but if you have the beam hit a flat mirror instead of a diagonal one it will continue the path it was on. Then there is the splitter that takes the beam hit on the backside and sends it out in two directions that are a 90-degree angle from each other. You can use an extender piece to get the beam to stretch farther if needed and a color panel if you need the beam to be a specific color for the goal it is reaching.

The real tricky factor of it all is that you absolutely have to use all the pieces you are given! I only came across three puzzles where I solved it, but I didn’t use all the pieces so it didn’t progress, so it isn’t common, but it is possible. Be sure to be using everything the level gives you as, in most cases, you are given just enough pieces to solve it and nothing extra.

Other than solving the puzzles, there are unlockables, hint crystals, and story carvings to find in each level. They are pretty easy to locate as you can just search around the level before starting, which isn’t very large outside the actual puzzle platform. Placed randomly on the platform and nearby you can find shining orbs, glowing broken stones, and the stone keys. Shining orbs unlock the hint option for levels once you collect them all, which can be useful if you are stuck. Glowing broken stones unlock story elements that tell you about either a new puzzle element itself or about the lore within the realm you are in. Stone keys have to be hit with the correct color beam, meaning it is a puzzle of its own, but once you unlock all stone keys in a realm you get the hidden level unlocked.

Lastly, the hint system is an interesting one. Most games that provide a hint system simply have it tell you what to do in order to progress, but in this game it lets you pick a small section of the puzzle platform to see if one of the puzzle pieces is supposed to be on that spot. It simply shows an X if no puzzle pieces go there and an O if a puzzle piece goes there. Nothing about which piece, what direction it should be facing, or anything like that, so even with the hints you might still find yourself stumped for a moment, but at least it helps a bit.

Visuals

Atmospherically speaking, this game does a great job of building each realms unique style with various aspects such as water, lava, and brightness level. It is a more basic style design to pull off all the visuals, but it has beauty in its simplicity that brings out each realm as its own and clearly shows what the player needs to do along with what pieces they have to work with.

Audio

Some of the most peaceful music I have heard in a game is found in this title. Each realm has its own style of music to go along with it as well. This touch was a very well done aspect that helped build the atmosphere itself and keep me calm as I got frustrated with their more difficult puzzles.

Replayability

There are a lot of unlockable secret levels players can access and by completing them they can complete the totem in the game. While that would just provide, what I imagine was, the true ending of the game, it is something worth going back for if you enjoyed the main style of the game. These secret levels were the hardest puzzles I came across in the game and would be the true challenge for players to face.

If you already did all the levels and secret levels, there isn’t much reason to go back through it though. All the puzzles will be solved the same way they were the first time.

What It Could Have Done Better

While I get they were trying to tell the story through ancient style writing, it was kind of hard to follow. They present such great, challenging puzzles that I kept finding myself forgetting what part of the lore I was on and so when I would read a new piece of it, it just seemed like random story bits. It would be nice to have a spot in the menu to look back on all the lore bits we unlocked so that we could read through them as a finished set rather than just piece by piece in between puzzles.

Verdict

Archaica: The Path of Light is a frustratingly difficult puzzle game that I enjoyed all the way through! Sure, it isn’t always fun to get stumped by a puzzle, but the somewhat vague hint system still gave me a sense of completion even when I used it to solve a puzzle. Puzzle games without truly challenging levels fall short, in my opinion, even if the hardest ones are secret or side levels that don’t affect the overall game progression. This game offered both a challenging yet passable game progression and even more challenging secret levels.