The Eyes of Ara

Pros: it's a beautifully produced game with a good story and exquisite graphics in a nice 3D environment.... navigation works well.... there are lots of puzzles, superb attention to detail, and it's long. Cons: clues and puzzles are vague and everything is so spread out that the environment became a hindrance, and there's no map. So if, like me, you're not someone with a photographic memory for where everything is, you can spend lots of time just trying to find rooms that you've been in and want to return to. It's lovely that there are a lot of rooms but after a while it just became annoying. Some rooms only have one thing in them. I got so tired of going all over the place trying to remember where something was. I also agree with the reviewer who mentioned how there are numerous puzzles that require much work and end up only getting you an achievement... doing nothing to advance you in the game. Personally, I don't really care about achievements and each time this happened it was disappointing. I thought I'd had a breakthrough... but no. I could go on, but suffice it to say that the frustration level has surpassed the pleasure level. I'm exhausted and It's not fun anymore. Not sure if I even want to try to finish. This game, while beautiful in many ways, has worn me down.

Its certainly one of the more ambitious Myst / The Room style games, however in the ambition and complexity lies the problem. Too many things that are just there to do, that dont seem to have much to do with the actual plot (which all things considered, Im still not sure what the actual plot was...) Further, its extremely difficult at times to even see what or where you are supposed to go or do next. More often I found myself mindlessly tapping until something might have happened -- this I find to be a problem with a lot of these style games. In the traditional Myst Games, the scene was simple in its interaction, but could be complex in layers of simplicity. "The Room" series is 99% on point with this, as was "Agent A", however in this game the interactions are vague and ambigious, and complex -- there is no seeming reason why I should twist or touch something, and often times my touch isnt even registering because it isn't specific enough, so Ill find myself consulting the walkthrough and go "but I just did that...". The House of DaVinci was like this as well, and I never actually finished it either. The game was made with a lot of love, thats clear, but the puzzles and side puzzles (and I cant stand side puzzles and quests...) just confuse and obfuscate the objective. I think that this game could correct a lot of that by not having the scenes being panoramic, but instead static. What am I looking at, and why? What is in front of me? etc... Wish I could give a bit more, but Im a but bummed at the gameplay. Thanks for the offering, and best wishes in future developements!

I am always a sucker for 3D puzzle adventures like The Room, The House Of Da Vinci, Returner 77, and Alleys. This is another Amazing game that I think is in the same level of them. The graphics are amazing, sure the lighting effects are scaled down but this is iOS hardware so you can’t really complain. The puzzles are quite challenging but at the same time they are fun to solve, even though I looked up a walkthrough a few times. The indoors of the castle is really detailed. All the rooms and hallways are fun to explore because of that. I also like the idea of collecting stuff like tokens, photos, toys, etc. Even though I don’t care about them much, It’s always rewarding to find them. Achievements are also a nice surprise! I always like when games like this have achievements. So in general I have 0 complaints. I haven’t finished the game yet, which is good because I will be sad when it’s over. (Can’t believe only 1 person created this, oh my god)