Relicta

Ignore the play hours; I've completed the game on Epic, but decided to purchase it here so I could review it. Story isn't as important for me when it comes puzzle games, so after I sat through the first few obnoxious cutscenes, I decided to skip the rest. With those out of the way, what you end up with is an excellent physics-based puzzle game that really puts your puzzling to the test. There were a few moments that were a bit tedious, like dealing with those bots that reset your blocks, but other than that, it was meaty and challenging -- exactly what I want my puzzlers to be.

The boss verbally abusing me hit too close to home, almost stopped me dead in my tracks. I played a bit after that but it just did not feel right. Someone can be tough/menacing/disrespectful without being abusive. And the other characters' reaction after that was super casual, like, what is this writing? After a long break I went back to the game, but in later dialogues, same aggressive behaviour towards others still felt off. Because verbal harassment can also affect witnesses, not just receivers. I am very fine with cursing btw, I myself curse quite often. Just not at work. Plus there's friggin harassment trainings at work. Regular/recurring ones, at that. Hello?! Which begs the question, has the writer ever worked a day in their life? Because some jobs start you off with such a training on your very first day at work. And this has been a thing, years before the release of this game. The implementation of some puzzles are wonky to say the least, it should be an 80%/20% ratio for figuring out a puzzle vs implementing the solution. One puzzle had an extra bit that felt like busy work which was confusing at first cus its purpose in the big picture was unclear, but in the end its purpose turned out to be nonexistent. Made me think back to one comment saying the devs fluffed the game out in the first hours so people wouldn't realize how bad it is in time for a refund. One puzzle had a non obvious cube just standing there in a spot that's easy to miss, yet other cubes placed in similar spots in different puzzles were correctly made to stand out by being active. So on the occasion it was easy to miss, it felt like an oversight or bad design. In that same area it was easy to bug out 2 other cubes, just straight up break the game. Thank god for the Reset feature. Which btw, a disappointingly large number of levels need it, this to me indicates terrible puzzle and layout design. And the headaches from movement sickness, really? I'm literally standing still, just looking around, ffs. In games with fast bhop it's not even half as bad. Or take the Portal games which are well known, they fling you across the room at high speed, spin you around n stuff and you barely get to feel sick maybe once an hour. Something here is just off, you can read it in reviews and comments, and turning AA to low did not help, so I have to drop this. There's some obscure or hard games out there that are still worthwhile despite skewed reviews and low finish rate per the achievements, I should know, I do give a try to games in this genre. But this one is a dud. Doubt I'll get a refund, my bad for trying this some years after purchasing it.

Em geral um jogo de puzzle mediano com bons gráficos e mecânicas pecando em sua história confusa e com personagens rasos. Como muitos mencionaram eu senti que o pacing não é bom, as fases vão ficando grandes, complexas e longas até demais até que aconteça algum avanço na história, isso acaba frustando bastante o jogador.

Solid game if you get it on sale. Pretty decent amount of content with somewhat satisfying puzzles though some of the physics are not as smooth as they could be.

Relicta é a definição de mediocridade. Ele tenta entregar uma experiência de puzzle com identidade própria, mas de modo geral falha muito. A história é tão irrelevante e mal contada que eu simplesmente ignorei, e a trilha sonora é apenas um som ambiente qualquer, totalmente esquecível. O maior problema, no entanto, é o próprio ritmo do jogo. Os puzzles são longos demais, não no sentido de dificuldade, mas na quantidade de coisa que você precisa fazer em cada sala. Eles viram quase labirintos, e se você não for jogando por partes, é fácil se perder ou simplesmente ficar cansado. A estrutura é linear, mas com uma sensação estranha de confusão, como se o jogo fosse aberto quando na verdade não é. São quatro áreas principais, cada uma com 2 ou 3 salas enormes e com vários puzzles dentro delas. Teve sala que eu passei quase duas horas só pra terminar, e o motivo não foi a dificuldade, foi puro cansaço mental de tanto puzzle longo. Ainda assim, eu zerei e gostei da gameplay, mas só porque levei no meu ritmo, jogando no máximo uma ou duas horas por dia e ouvindo música externa. Se tentar jogar maratonando, a chance de dropar é altíssima. No final, minha crítica é simples: enquanto a maioria dos jogos de puzzle peca por serem curtos demais, Relicta faz o oposto e exagera na duração de um jeito que cansa muito mais do que deveria. O jogo vale apena só se você amar puzzles complexos e comprar na promoção, não vale 100 reais nunca!

Eigentlich finde ich das Spiel super. Die Idee ist spannend und die Grafik schön. Auch die Steuerung funktioniert gut. Nun das große Aber: ich kann es nur etwa bis zum "Glacier Test Track" spielen. Danach sind mir zu viele zeitkritische Puzzles dabei. Ich bin einfach nicht schnell genug, diese zu spielen. Selbst mit Lösungsweg klappt es nicht. Dazu kommt, dass die einzelnen Tracks immer länger werden und man zwischendurch nicht speichern kann. Wenn man also wegen des Timings endlich eine Aufgabe geschafft hat und dann stundenlang am nächsten verzweifelt und gezwungen ist ohne Pause weiter zu machen, um den Fortschritt nicht zu verlieren, artet das schnell in Frust aus. Daher ist bei mir jetzt Schluss. Wer also Maus oder Gamepad Akrobat ist, für den ist das Spiel empfehlenswert. Für Leute die es eher gemächlich wünschen und lieber denken wollen, ist wohl nur maximal die erste Hälfte empfehlenswert. Sehr schade. Ein bisschen sanfteres Timing und vor allem ein Zwischenspeichern innerhalb eines Tracks hätte mir das Spiel nicht vorzeitig vergrault. Ich weiß eh nicht, warum es bei nahezu keinem Spiel mehr einen Speichern Knopf gibt.

Relicta is majorly slept on! I've been playing through both the main story and the 2 excellent free DLCs and I have words to share! The game is a first person physics puzzler in the vein of Portal and Q.U.B.E, but is perhaps most similar to Magrunner: Dark Pulse since one of the main mechanics is magnets and the switching of polarity. Generally this is used to move boxes around with the aid of a 'remove gravity' ability. On top of this there are various barriers, switches, moving platforms and the like. This all makes for a very interesting and satisfying set of puzzles, albeit the main story in particular focuses mostly on systematic problem solving (keeping overview of complex systems) rather than creative problem solving (thinking outside the box), which may or may not be to your preference. I personally found that the two free DLCs - which together takes just as much time as the main story - struck a better balance between the two types of problem solving. My only substantive critique is that the main story becomes a bit obstructive because there is a fair amount of "walking simulator" in the base, which seems to primarily be there to make sure the story gets told. I have seen better integration in other games where the story is told during the puzzles and you can listen or not as you please. Indeed, even the 2 DLCs made it work better in my opinion. The Aegir Gig DLC doesn't have much story truth be told, but has even better puzzles than the main story, and the Ice Queen DLC is absolutely amazing from both a puzzle and story perspective. Relicta is a beautiful game which has a lot going for it. I think the reason it didn't explode into popularity is primarily the complex nature of many of the puzzles. They are not overly difficult, but they do not lend themselves particularly well to dopamine-inducing Eureka moments. That said, I really enjoyed my time with the game (especially the Ice Queen DLC!) and you should consider checking it out as well.