The Eyes of Ara

A mesmerizing first person puzzly adventure. In The Eyes of Ara, you arrive to an old castle to uncover its secrets. The game plays as a mix of other puzzle games like The Room and Safecracked. You start with limited rooms opened, but as you solve puzzles and find secret mechanisms you get to lots of new rooms in the castle. The game is splitted into 3 parts or chapters. There's also quite a lot of diary and book reading. Fortunately, most of the crucial information is highlighted or marked in some way to draw attention. There's a lot of lore and exposition but not everything is required to solve a puzzle. The difficulty starts average, but scales to difficult deductions and puzzles near the end. Expect to come back to previous locations to comb every spot since some of them are actually quite hidden. This is probably the worst aspect of the game, pixel hunting or just not finding the clue for the puzzles that are available for you at any time. The game is also very dark, with most walls and floors being dark gray. Soundwise, there's not really a lot to mention, just scenary background noises or small cues when something gets activated or solved. It's a fun game when puzzles make sense and you are not blocked for long periods of time. Recommended if you enjoyed games like The House of Da Vinci.

I give this game a qualified recommendation. I probably spent around 20 non-idle hours exploring this castle. I had fun, and I was pretty proud of myself when I (without doing any outside research) reached the "office" room which--as I initially suspected and later confirmed on YouTube--is the gateway to the endgame. But this game makes the notable and somewhat hardcore design choice not to distinguish between secrets and main path progression. So when you reach the final office, you cannot proceed to the endgame unless you have found certain secrets (coins, figurines, photos, etc.). The problem is that, for this gamer at least, it is too tedious having reached this point to go back and search for all the secrets I missed. I was able to fight through tedium and backtracking, etc., to keep exploring and unlocking new areas. That is the motivational drive that leads to ingenuity to solve the puzzles and progress the game. But by their nature, secrets are off the main path and not required to unlock new areas. So the idea of going back at this point is too open-ended and overwhelming. My suggestion would be provide a cut scene when you find the final office and roll credits, then challenge the user to keep exploring. This would be a better endgame experience for many if not most users.

There is no story or logic in this game, you search for things just for the search sake. Exhausting. I felt no joy playing it and I gave up after fifth chapter.

Wer knackige Rätselspiele ohne lästiges Turnen, Springen und Rennen an der Tastatur schätzt, ist hier gut aufgehoben. Aber das Niveau der Rätsel hat es oft in sich. Man kann durchaus mal feststecken und für einen gelegentlichen Blick auf Lösungshilfen braucht man sich (nach strebendem Bemühen ! ) nicht zu schämen. - Schön gemachte Grafik. Empfehle Zugriff!

The interconnected puzzle concept seems cool but the graphics are just way too old and dated for a modern playthrough I couldn't get immersed in the environment at all and ended up refunding it Skip this one if you need crisp, modern visuals to enjoy your games

Amei platinei. Para quem curte puzzle é um achado, recomendo.

P&C en primera persona con muchos puzzles.. Recomendable para los amantes del Genero...