Puzzle games are easily the most hit-or-miss in gaming. There are greats like Portal, The Talos Principle, and Obstruction, but also polarizing titles like Myst, Superliminal, and Bad Rats. It’s tough to create a game that’s a head-scratcher not thanks to its mechanics, but to genuinely thought-provoking design. Mighty Polygon’s Relicta looks to join the ranks of the greats with its gravity manipulation and polarity mechanics, but how does it do?

First off, the setting and level design within Relicta deserves praise. Stationed on our moon in the 22nd Century, Angelica Patel is the first to experiment with gravity-bending. The moon has been terraformed and is host to intriguing biomes and locales, starting you off in a forest and then a snowy environment. The lore of the game reveals that conflict on Earth sparked this research expedition to find a new home.

The game is quite the looker, especially with its modest graphical requirements. Even so, it’s a nice touch that it notifies players that, due to the necessity of smooth gameplay, graphics settings can be lowered to accommodate. Unfortunately, the settings on display are a bit meager, not allowing for the player to remove the cardinal sins of PC gaming: bloom and motion blur. For a game so tied to its maneuverability, it can be sickening to have such thick blur on-screen at all times.

Going into the mechanics, Relicta eases the player into its brand of puzzles with some simple examples of the gravity shifts and positive/negative polarity. The progression is quite similar to Portal as boxes are what separates the player from advancing. Some puzzles will come easier than others, but not a single hint is given to the player, urging them to listen in on what Patel is saying for context clues and forcing trial-and-error at points.

Adding a comprehensive story to the mix adds a sense of urgency to progression, but I found the characters to be quite annoying. It’s hard to tell if you’re supposed to be chummy with Dr. Alami or not, as their dialogue and text in PDA emails is, frankly, as irritating as can be, despite them supposedly being on your side. The first email you are given to read is littered with early 2010’s meme dialogue, which had me wincing in disgust. It made Life is Strange dialogue look novelistic. I lost count of all the F-bombs that were dropped within the first hour, which was truly unnecessary, as it gave the game an M rating. That rating potentially shadowed it from a wider audience just to be edgy.

It’s hard not to compare Relicta to other puzzle games, as its structure is pretty grounded in the roots of some of the aforementioned titles. To truly innovate within the puzzle genre seems nigh impossible, but Relicta tries its damnedest, falling a bit short with a lackluster narrative and gameplay that can’t save the day. It’s a pretty game, and diehards of this type of game will have fun, but Relicta won’t be lauded by the general public, even at its $20 price tag.

A PC Review Copy of Relicta was provided by Ravenscourt for this review.

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Relicta

$19.99 USD

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Compelling environments
• Nice level design
• Great graphics

Cons

• Atrocious dialogue
• 0 hand-holding
• Lots of guesswork

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