Altheia juggles too many bowling pins simultaneously; most of them hang in the air, but some are broken into pieces and now lie on the ground. My 20-hour journey into the world of Altheia was filled with handling intricate puzzles, basking in great visuals, and dealing with frustrating gameplay elements. Some of the problems did manage to overstay their welcome, but most of the game has the magic that made me keep coming back to it. Here is our review of Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi: Journey into a Puzzle-Filled Magical World.
Can’t Get Enough Puzzles
The absolute highlight of Altheia: The Wrath of Aferi is its puzzles. The game also borrows exploration and merges with the puzzle-solving gameplay to make the experience more daunting. Nearly all the puzzles from the very start of the game to the end are different. Each has its own identity by making the player use all of their abilities to solve it. Sometimes it might lead to frustration, but most times the puzzles were quite good. The feeling of solving them and waiting for another one is always a sign of good puzzle gameplay.
The limited hand-holding also makes the puzzles memorable. The game follows the old-school Tomb Raider way of dealing with the game. It just drops you into the room and lets you figure everything out with no objective or information about the puzzle or anything. Sometimes the character will blurt out a line about the puzzle, but it’s to inform the player about abilities.
Many of the game’s locations do throw you two doors, and each room will have its own set of puzzles. Many times, I decided to solve the puzzle in Room A. After spending hours figuring it out, I just gave up and went into Room B. After a bit of exploring in Room B, I found the item needed to solve the puzzle in Room A. Even if a room has multiple puzzles, sometimes you will have to go to another puzzle room to find a key to open a locked door in the first room. Even if the game provides a different way to tackle the puzzle, sometimes it wants me to play by its rules.
Eye Catching Visual Artistry and Mesmerizing Soundtrack
Altheia features some of the breathtaking vistas and artistic flair that complement the story’s setting and the characters. The emotional or distressing scenes of Lili are done incredibly well with proper artistic visuals. The audio also blends in well with the scenery, creating a brand new tale in every new area I step into in the game. Nearly every location has its own design and vibe that differs from the previous location. At times, it felt as if I were playing a new game whenever I stepped into a new zone.
The game is fairly linear from the start to the end, but it does give the player enough room to breathe. Altheia delivers impeccable visual sights that do justice to the magical setting of the game. Altheia has a somber and catchy soundtrack that also elevates the fantasy of the game.
Story About Forgiveness
The story follows Lili as she slowly finds acceptance in her fate. After constant refusal to become a guardian like mother, the fate of the world pushes her to become the same figure. The story has many heartwarming moments with a large emphasis on forgiveness. The relationship Lili grows with Sadi is the best part of the game’s overall story.
Myriad of Problems
A bit of jankiness is present all throughout the game, certainly in controls. There is no key dedicated to the map, so I had to always pause the game and navigate to the map section in the options to view the map. In a game with branching paths, opening the map is as common as swinging a sword. Sometimes the options on the settings menu will disappear, so I had to make a guess where the settings are located.
All of Lili’s weapons are formed via Sadi, her friend. Sadi has a problem of disappearing, glitching out during the combat and puzzle scenarios. If you want to use a bomb or bow, or a big sword, without Sadi, none of them can be equipped. When Sadi glitches out, you are left vulnerable to the enemy’s attack and puzzles. Some enemies do require a bomb or an arrow to die; the same goes for puzzles as well. This is by far the biggest issue in the game; whenever Sadi disappeared from my game, I had no choice but to hit restart from checkpoints.
The game has many audio and voice glitches that can make things a bit awkward to witness. Right at the end of the game, Lili goes from frustration, defeat, and depression to heroic and determined in the span of ten to fifteen seconds. And this scene played out without any music in the background, making the entire scene unintentionally hilarious to witness.
When you hold the upward direction with the sprint button at the same time, the character will not sprint. As I have to press forward and then the sprint button for Lili to sprint. It sounds minor, but when you are running away from a monster or trying to make a jump from a cliff to another, these minor problems will make the entire experience annoying.
Illusion of Freedom
The game offers branching paths, but you are allowed to take only one of them. It wants the player to follow the line in the mini-map to get to the primary objective. Whenever I take a path on the side of the main route, Lili will immediately turn around and stop. While the game did present multiple ways but it never allowed me to venture a different route. Since the game appears a bit open-world, the linear experience makes exploration feel restricted.
Almost all the branching paths are related to the primary story mission. The path that I couldn’t take before, I’ll head back to the same location 30 minutes later. Now, I can interact with the hidden door because it is part of the story mission. After a while, I gave up on the idea of exploring and stuck to the main route to complete the quest.
Conclusion
What Works:
- Good Puzzles
- Gripping Visuals & Soundtrack
- Strong Characters
What Doesn’t:
- Glitches and Bugs
- Unintuitive Controls
The game has many problems, some of them can be deal-breakers to many people, but it also has the magic delivered through visuals and puzzles. No mission, puzzle, or activity felt the same. All of them are designed to give the player something different around every corner. I also have to mention the glitches that ruined certain parts of the game, as I was forced to see the section all over again because of an untimed bug.
Score: 7/10
A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review.
