Relicta from Deep Silver and Mighty Polygon is a first-person physics-based puzzle adventure set on a research facility on the moon. Learn more in our Relicta review!
In Relicta from Deep Silver and Mighty Polygon, you will take on a first-person physics-based puzzle adventure that will allow you to explore a research facility set on the moon in the year 2021. You’ll play as one Doctor Patel, a renowned physicist who is doing valuable research on a new source of energy that, if it falls into the wrong hands, could lead to something very, very bad. But worry not, because before that is the case, something goes terribly wrong!
For this first-person adventure, you’ll move with the left analog stick, turning the camera with the right now. If you want to run, you can do so by pressing and holding down the L1 button, or you can also press down the L3 button. The X button will be for jumping, and you’ll get to interact with things with the Square button. The Triangle button will open up your PDA, where you can check some extra information on what is going on. Once you get access to your abilities, you can alter the gravity of objects with the L1 button, as well as activate negative and positive magnetism with the L2 and R2 buttons, respectively.
After a very “doom and gloom” intro story sequence, you’ll get to control Dr. Patel during better times. It is here that you will be introduced to some of the puzzle gameplay mechanics as you take on what is a short tutorial sequence. You’ll be tasked with interacting with blocks that you can carry, but which cannot travel through energy walls. Since you can move through these walls, you’ll quickly realize you need to move the boxes as you go along so that you can deactivate some of the walls to then use more boxes to deactivate some more walls. Simple, right? Things will then start to get a bit more complicated once instant matter teleporters are thrown into the mix, along with color variations of these teleporters, tied to different blocks.
And then, there are the gravitational properties for your gloves, which you’ll obtain early in the game. To make things easier on you, positive magnetism will be represented by a red-colored field, while negative magnetism will be represented by a blue-colored field. Basically, objects of the same color repel, while objects of different colors attract. Now, when you combine the cubes, the pressure plates, the color-coded teleporters, being able to alter their gravity, and the power of introducing positive or negative magnetism to them… well, you can see how some puzzles can end up being quite clever and hard!
While exploring each area in Relicta, you’ll be able to take some pictures with the included Photo Mode to keep as souvenirs on your PlayStation 4 hard drive. You can enter Photo Mode by pressing the Touchpad on the DualShock 4. Once in there, you’ll be able to move the camera around to frame your picture, change the field of view, change the magnifier, establish the focal region, the focal Bokeh size, as well as the focal distance, change the saturation, gamma, gain, and contrast, switch the overall bloom, increase or decrease the lens flare intensity, add grain, introduce some specific color grading, and more.
Something that I found interesting for the accessibility options that Relicta has to offer gamers is that on top of being able to change the crosshair type to different shapes and sizes – or removing it altogether for those of you who want to dial up the challenge – in the language setting, you can make changes to how subtitles are displayed. You can, of course, remove the subtitles, but then you can tinker with them and change them from the default font to Serif or Sans-Serif, change the shadow for subtitles, add a background text box, as well as change the font size between small, medium, and large. This last option is an excellent one to have for Relicta, because too many games in the PS4 era end up with very tiny text – particularly when they’re being ported from the PC version – forcing players to sit very close to the TV.
As for the trophies, Relicta has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy waiting for you at the end of it all. There are a handful of trophies related to finding the different collectibles you can locate around each area, as well as all PDA cards. The rest of the trophies will be awarded for completing each section you visit, as well as for solving all of the puzzles in each area. There are two trophies that are mutually exclusive, and then there’s one that asks that you complete the game in less than six hours, which will require a lot of hard work because of the many puzzles you have to solve.
Relicta is a fun first-person puzzle adventure with a nice difficulty curve and gameplay mechanics tied to magnetism and gravity that will test your skills in full during the home stretch. It does a good job of mixing the story segments and the puzzle test tracks, providing a lot of content to enjoy. Relicta is out now on PlayStation 4 with a $19.99 asking price.
Disclaimer
This Relicta review is based on a PlayStation 4 copy provided by Deep Silver.
