PS4 Review Code Provided by Mighty Polygon
It’s not often that you come across a new puzzle game and just feel the inspiration behind its development as you play the game. Mighty Polygon has created a puzzle game with so much heart in both the puzzle difficulties and interesting story that it felt like an alternative Portal game - just instead of playing with portals, you play with gravity. Working with Ravenscourt, they got Relicta released on multiple platforms which allows more players the chance to enjoy this game and I recommend it greatly!
Story
In the year 2120, a top physicist working on the Chandra Moon Base finds herself stranded and facing complications. With the stress of her daughter joining the team on the same day that strange events begin happening in both technological and team members alike, she continues to make her way through the different base zones. In order to plunge further into the base in her quest for answers and understanding, she must solve the puzzles that were originally set up to test her specially designed gloves that can manipulate magnets and gravity. Without solving these puzzles she can’t proceed yet bypassing the puzzles will raise suspicion on her behalf, so better get started before things get worse.
Gameplay
The controls for this game are kept simple because the puzzles definitely are not. You have your movement, jump, run, grab the cube, magnet red, magnet blue, and gravity shift buttons. All of these are shown to you at the beginning of the game in a section of testing that you will become familiar with as the game progresses you will be sent back to it to get a tutorial version of puzzles with new elements. These tutorial-style puzzles are how the game provides new information and puzzle elements to you.
As I said, you can grab cubes and walk around with them. The goal will always be to get the cube onto a pressure plate, but some puzzles require more than one cube. These pressure plates will release the power to a golden grid which prevents anything from moving through it. The other grids you will face are purple ones that only allow the player to move through them and green ones that only allow the cubes to move through them.
Cubes and magnet panels will be the main pieces you are working with when moving forward through a puzzle. Magnet panels can be changed between the red and blue magnets just as the cube can. The way the magnets works are exactly how you learned in science class; opposites attract while the same repel. This means that if you want the cube to stick to another cube or a panel, they need to be opposite colors. If you want them to repel, they need to be the same color.
A lot of times you will have to make the two different colors, let them connect, and then change one of their colors so the cube is thrown forward. Typically, it can just get a little bit of distance before falling to the ground. This is where gravity manipulation comes in. Cubes can have their gravity turned off so that when they are thrown forward, they stay at the same level they are at and keep moving. Eventually, the game will have you play with this idea by having you place a cube near a magnet panel, turn off the gravity, and then make it the same color as the panel so it flies up diagonally.
My favorite ending to a puzzle is when you aren’t just trying to remove a golden grid and rather trying to take a ride on a cube to an upper area. Sometimes it is simply being lifted like an elevator or getting on a joyride bouncing between magnets so that you can weave through pillars. It is the epitome of how they get you to use magnet and gravity manipulation creatively in order to solve their elaborate puzzles.
Visuals
This game provides some wonderful scenery. Even with the details being only expansive enough to be a brilliant background whether it is in the background or up close, it still does a great job providing a beautiful sight for you to look at as you solve the puzzles. It’s perfect for short breaks to rest your mind when struggling or just in between puzzles.
Sounds
Instead of focusing on music, they opted for various soundscapes to go with each map. In ways, I want to say this was a better choice because it doesn’t distract you from solving puzzles while still giving your some kind of noise to fill the silence, all while doubling as an added aspect to build the environment. Plus, the sci-fi sound effects used when activating things with the gloves never got old!
Replayability
I wouldn’t say there is much replayability since it suffers the same problem majority puzzle games out there face; Once you solve the puzzles, they will always be the same as they were before.
What Could Be Better
It would have been nice to have some kind of map or better guide for the times you are inside the actual base area. Almost every time I was inside of the base I was lost and just venturing around inside until I found where I was supposed to go. There are lots of ways they could have provided a sort of player guidance for these buildings and is something they should consider adding.
Conclusion
Relicta is as mind-bending as it is gravity-bending! Playing around with physics through the alternations of gravity and magnets was such a unique idea and offered plenty of challenges. Plus, there wasn’t a single time that riding the block wasn’t fun, let alone satisfying since it requires you to set everything up just right. It was an interesting concept and I wasn’t expecting it to also have an interesting story to follow along with it. Definitely among the best 3D puzzle games out there!
