Heaven's Vault

Heaven's Vault is a game unlike any I have ever played before--to both its benefit and its detriment. At its heart, it is a mystery game where the player unravels the mystery by slowly deciphering language-based puzzles. You play as an archeologist in a society that believes history is circular and that everything that happened in the past is guaranteed to occur again in the future. Thus, as you explore the various moons of the nebula, you are both uncovering the past and theoretically predicting the future. It was a very interesting premise from the beginning and Inkle realizes some parts of their vision beautifully. The language they created is surprisingly deep and learning it is a very satisfying experience. At the beginning, I was taking ample notes trying to decipher trends in the symbols. By the end of my first playthrough, I was easily recognizing parts of speech and word connections that made it feel almost like reading a real language. The history of the world also feels deep and real. Like there is a lot more to discover that is outside the scope of the game but present none-the-less. However, when it comes to actual gameplay mechanics, the game falls tragically short. Most obviously is the glacial pace of the game. You walk incredibly slowly, there are long transitions, and you will have to retread certain areas (Iox, Elboreth) a painful number of times. Worse, speaking with your robot companion (a valuable tool for learning more information), prevents you from seeing interaction points. Thus, you either have to skip potentially important dialogue or you have to just stand around and wait for it to finish to make sure you aren't walking by important clues. And since you can't return to most locations, you want to make sure you have thoroughly explored before leaving. The game also sets up a NG+ as if it will be significantly different and exciting to play but unless you rush your first playthrough, it really doesn't change much. I explored the moons in a different order to see if that would changed how the story unfolded but there were only very minor changes. Since your dictionary carries over, the language "puzzles" are also mostly already solved on your second playthrough (some of the sentences are slightly more complicated in NG+, but only slightly). You really don't learn anything more than you learned the first time through. Overall, I do recommend this game as it had an intriguing story, a great language-based puzzle system, and interesting lore. But you should either try to do everything possible in a single run, or purposefully skip some stuff on your first playthrough in order to make NG+ less painful.

Almost unplayable for AZERTY keyboards users, and keys cannot be binded otherwise. I will change my evaluation if this problem is resolved. I have no answer in the forums for more than 20 days. it is a shame because the story seems very good, and I am pretty sure I played a demo just fine, so why the finished game have this problem?

没有中文翻译导致理解游戏背景存在一些障碍，总体来说英文文本不是很难，但是字幕滚动速度过快QAQ 满足了我同时当考古学家语言学家和历史学家的愿望。。需要沉浸式游玩，古老的文明会在每一个词语的破译与每一个遗迹的探索中缓缓揭开她的面纱 ;)

An absolutely essential play if you like history and language in an alternate universe. Inkle and Jon Ingold are master story tellers and this game tells a deeply moving story about the fall of civilizations, clinging on to their debris and trying to learn from the past. I played through this game 4 times in total and am hooked on the premise and personalities in it. Two huge caveats. 1) the gameplay itself is very hit and miss and can get quite frustrating if you are trying to be efficient. This is not a game to be playing efficiently. Take your time and don't get hasty, so that the unexpected turns your character makes (literally) don't become too frustrating. 2) the game becomes 10x more interesting if you also read the books (at least the first two), as many details and personality quirks are explored in the books whereas the game only ever has the time to show their consequences, meaning that a lot remains unsaid in the game which might add a lot to the overall story. Played on steam deck without any issues. I look forward to reading books 3 and 4 soon :)

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로봇이 넘 불쾌한 골짜기임

Ultimately gives the impression of a point-and-click game with fantastic writers, laden with too many ideas, excelling with the text-based content of the game, but inconsistent with translating other concepts across into gameplay mechanics. Focused on translation puzzles in the vein of 'Chants of Sennaar', though considerably more narratively-driven and very much deserving that 'Choices Matter' tag on the Steam store page for how many permutations of a playthrough there can be, and how much of it is optional or missable. Puzzles and worldbuilding are consistently well-done, the gradual uncovering of its setting's history always satisfying, and what's worth sticking with the game for to see through despite its clunkiness being a constant presence in many instances; minor optimization issues, an awkward travel mini-game (albeit with beautiful setdressing), slow animations, dialogue choices and on-going conversations slowing your pace in exploring an area by obstructing interactables besides. One of the better translation-centric games you can find, and encouraging replayability with a New Game Plus mode, but served in the end mostly to interest me in the setting and series of novels set therein, taking place during and after the events of the game.

省流：文字解谜类，有跑图需求，需要在角落找文物，无中文，猜词是四个选项选其一，全成就需要多周目，多周目保留破解的文字但是不保留文物，需要重新跑图。 OK玩完了一周目，暂时没有玩二周目的打算，先来写测评。 是一款非常优秀的游戏，与其说是类巴别塔游戏，不如说是考古模拟器。 ①需要破解的文字都在古物上，是靠字形来猜意思，不是巴别塔那种看别人动作来猜意思的模式。[spoiler]更适合中国宝宝的猜词模式，完全就是甲骨文的组词逻辑，这集真神了吧。[/spoiler] ②猜词的时候是四个选项选其一，在之后遇到相同单词的时候会进行一次验证，如果对了的话就会把翻译和词对应起来，错了的话就会排除一个选项。 ③需要跑图，需要在角落里找文字来翻译。而且人物走的速度会比较慢，急性子或者二周目的时候可能看着很急。 ④多周目保留翻译出来的单词，不保留找到的词句。[spoiler]也许可以直接在多周目直奔森林星球，然后形成到heaven's vault的路？不知道，你可以试试。[/spoiler] 剧情上其实挺简单的，大头还是在猜词上，这里就不剧透了，现在我暂时还没有二周目的动力，因为猜词都猜的差不多了，应该只差一两个地区的探索，但想到要这么长的流程再跑一遍就头疼，这个游戏的多周目适合忘干净了再来跑一个周目，连续跑多周目可能还是会让人很头疼的。 另：记得在游戏开始时找设置里面调一下文本速度，不然很容易跟不上文本导致要去干什么都不知道。

Si vous aimez les jeux tranquilles avec une super histoire, vous allez vous régaler. Un des rares jeux sur lequel j'ai apprécié de faire un new game+.