![]() The complexity ramps up considerably at this point with numerous puzzles to solve, environmental clues to find, and narrative bits and pieces to collect and read that will slowly form a picture of what exactly the mysterious castle was used for… and perhaps lead you on a path to figuring out what The Eyes of Ara actually are. Like easing into a hot tub, once the game gets going you’ll be perfectly ready, loose, and limber to take on each new mystery.Īstronomy and astrological bodies are a running theme. It’s here you’ll realise that you were playing a tutorial, one that introduced the number of ways in which you can interact with the environment, via a number of fairly isolated puzzles. That feeling will quickly go away once the first of a handful of larger areas to explore opens up. And if you fall into that category The Eyes of Ara may even seem disappointing in the early stages. Mind you, referring to these opening moments as surprisingly simple only applies to those of us who recall staring at a CRT monitor for hours on end while a newfangled CD-ROM drive did its magic to bring us a vivid and confusing multimedia world to explore. And for those of us who generally aren’t very good at solving complex and multi-layered puzzles, it’s the sort of design that’ll make you feel clever. You might be stuck in a room, for instance, and need to poke and prod and logically experiment until you work out what you need to do to proceed. ![]() Instead of large areas to wander around in, then, the opening sections of The Eyes of Ara are made up of the sort of stuff you’d find in a classic Zelda game. Wilfully obtuse puzzles are a relic of adventure games past. ![]() “Games have come a long way since then and I wanted to incorporate modern design techniques and theory that has been painstakingly developed over the last few decades.” “The obtuse design of those old games was something I specifically wanted to avoid,” Droste explains. This style of game is known for dropping the player into a confusing world in which simply finding your feet can take a while. The initial puzzles, for instance, come as a refreshing surprise for anyone familiar with the genre in its heyday, in that they’re fairly straightforward and intuitive to solve. It’s only informed by games like Myst, however, and this is clear from the opening moments. The Eyes of Ara presents a world where the player has to piece together the narrative and history of its strange environment based on notes left behind by previous inhabitants and books concerned with planets and astrology, not to mention by wandering through the dusty halls of a huge castle taking in the various sights. I wanted to try to capture the same sense of wonder and contemplative exploration.” The result is very much a success. “I found Myst to be a fascinating game,” says 100 Stones’ Ben Droste, “it was unlike anything I had played before. Highly reminiscent of the ‘90s adventure phenomenon, in other words. The game, after all, is set on an isolated island that’s long been deserted, and is presented from first person, with environmental exploration, puzzles, a mysterious narrative, and supernatural-meets-sci-fi-meets-fantasy elements. Step 4: Use ring A to move itself, C, and D into their final position! The screenshot taken here is after it is solved, I couldn't take a shot fast enough once I had them all in place.It’s hard not to draw comparisons between The Eyes of Ara – a new game from Brisbane-based indie studio 100 Stones Interactive – and PC classic Myst. This is fairly straightforward since you can easily see how D and C fit together, even though they are upside-down at the moment. Step 3: Use ring C to align A, C, and D with one another. Step 2: Use ring D to put B in its final position (using the information we got earlier that the nose lines up with the break between the two stones). This is made easier by the diamonds on those rings, but make sure the chest is aligned with the head, otherwise it'll end up upside-down. To reset, simply exit to the main menu and then go back in. This shouldn't be necessary since the solution is systematic and works from any starting point, but it may reassure you that you're doing it right. 5 (Optional): If you want to reset your puzzle to the starting position, now is the time. I use the figure's nose as a guide since it lines up with the break between two stones on the outside of the painting. We'll need this information later since B needs to be positioned without anything else being in the correct spot. Step 0: Adjust the rings to see where B will ultimately go.
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