Relicta

Review

Upon loading the game you’ll be given the choice of playing the game in either DirectX 11 or DirectX 12. I never tried playing in DirectX 11, only in DirectX 12 and the game played fine. The game starts with Systems (AI) declaring a “Security Breach. This is not a drill. Initiating containment sequences...” The containment field in the Relicta chamber is collapsing, Doctor Laia Alami screams at Doctor Angelica Patel (you) not to approach the Relicta chamber! Ignoring her. Doctor Patel goes for a manual shutdown of the systems while Doctor Alami tries to override you and lock down the sector with Systems.

While this is happening, there’s a critical containment failure in the Relicta chamber. Systems identifies an Unidentified Malicious Vector, Emergency Lockdown is initiated, Core Systems have been compromised. Shutdown is in progress, as Doctor Alami politely screams for the override to prevent Doctor Patel from shutting down the system. It then goes dark and the story continues from an earlier point in time, 2118, two years earlier in the De Gerlache dome. The Der Gerlache dome is one of several terraformed biomes at the Chandra Base on the moon.

You enter the dome and it looks just like it would on Earth; multicoloured leaves adorn the trees, green grass and blue skies. You are testing the Gravitonic Wearable Interface (gloves) which you will use to move and manipulate cubes so that they can be placed on pressure pads. Upon placing the cubes on the pressure pads they will open forcefield gates. Sometimes you’ll have to place cubes on multiple pressure pads before a gate is opened. You can walk through some gates but not with carrying a cube.

Each cube has Positive and Negative Magnetism which are controlled by your left and right mouse button. When you have two cubes that are the same colour, they will have negative magnetism and will push away from each other, while two different colours will attract to each other. Turning the gravity on and off with the middle mouse button will then allow the cubes to float. Using the positive and negative magnetism will allow you to send your cubes further distances, pull them closer to where they are required, or send them higher above the ground.

You will also come across plates on the floor and walls and you’ll be able to change the magnetism to the same or opposite of the cubes. This will then allow you to send your cubes along a pathway to where they need to be. There are also some stations where you can place certain cubes and teleport them to another station. There are different types of stations, each one with a symbol to distinguish which cubes go where. You can then teleport the cubes to other areas that have a station behind a forcefield.

There are multiple puzzle areas for each biome region you visit and after completing an area you’ll head back to Chandra Base. Upon returning to base the story will reveal itself more and give you information on what is happening and what your next move will be. Also scattered around are collectable items and documents, which will give you some information on what is going on at the Chandra Base.

In the Options there’s settings for Graphics (Resolution, Window Mode, Show FPS, FPS Limit, Render Scale, General Quality, Vegetation, Post Processing, Shadow Quality, Texture Quality, View Distance, Visual Effects, Antialiasing and V-Sync), Audio (Master, Music, Sound Effects and Voice Volume Sliders), Controls/Accessibility (Mouse Sensitivity X + Y, Controller Sensitivity X + Y, Invert Y Axis, View Bobbing, Motion Blur Crosshair Type), Languages (English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Russian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese and Chinese), Gamma, Key Binding and Tobi Eye Tracking.

Relicta is a great looking first-person physics-based puzzle game that takes place in terraformed biomes on the moon. The puzzles can be challenging but with a bit of thought, you’ll figure them out. There is some “French” language in the game which doesn’t bother me at all but it may offend some folks. I had one problem while playing where I got stuck between a cube station and a wall after jumping around. However, a quick reboot and it was back to normal and I haven’t had any other problems so far.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com!