2022’s Unusual Horticulture was a breakout indie hit for brother builders Dangerous Viking. The puzzle sport about operating an esoteric plant retailer hid so many depths past its species-identifying core, with wealthy lore, character tales to turn into invested in, and the rumbling sense of a sinister underbelly. At this time arrives its sequel Unusual Antiquities, which I’m delighted to report not solely maintains every thing that made the primary sport so adored, but additionally improves it in virtually each doable means.
Returning to the fantasy metropolis of Undermere, we’re now working in an lovely little antiques store that sells mystical obscura similar to bejeweled statuettes, appeal necklaces that vibrate with peculiar energies, and objets d’artwork that provide the heebie-jeebies if you maintain them. The store’s proprietor, your boss, has to move out of city for a number of days, and also you’re left in cost regardless of not figuring out what any of the bizarre gadgets on the cabinets really are. Fortunately the boss, a Thaumaturge named Eli White, additionally left behind his copy of Unusual Artefacts: A Information To Occult Objects by T.S. Gill, which incorporates descriptions of all method of magical gadgets. Sadly only a few photos of them, however sufficient data that, upon scouring the cabinets and holding every object, it is possible for you to to infer which is likely to be which, and as such provide them to your prospects.
On this sense, issues are a lot the identical as in Unusual Horticulture and your dealings with its otherworldly vegetation. Nonetheless, in Unusual Antiquities, every thing is much more detailed and concerned. For example, within the earlier sport you could possibly decide up any plant and have a look at it, however that was about it. In Antiquities, each unusual merchandise within the assortment could be investigated in 4 alternative ways. You may examine its “Color and Composition,” use your “Sense of Touch,” search out “Scent and Sound,” and apply your “Inner Perception.” The primary three are self-explanatory, and every provides you a singular response for the item (until they’re not relevant), whereas the fourth is a extra psychic response to what you’re holding. For example, a purple bottle with a raised snake motif will let you know it’s made from purple clay, whereas the snake’s eyes are “small green gemstones,” the bottle feeling easy with the snake as “raised detailing,” and no explicit particular odor or noise. However you’ll additionally be taught that to carry it’s “unsettling,” and “the eyes seem to pierce my soul.” Such particulars are all important to narrowing down precisely what this odd purple bottle is likely to be, and what it’d include.
Not solely do you seek the advice of the listed pages of Occult Objects, however you even have a tome written by Eli himself known as Gems & Their Thaumic Properties, an historical pamphlet entitled On Curses & their Results, and an ever-growing pile of papers and notes that may present additional data. After which, as if all this weren’t sufficient, you’ve additionally received an in depth map of Undermere with which you’ll work together, clicking on one in every of its 32 named and dozens extra unnamed areas in an effort to find new antiquities so as to add to the cabinets. Areas are recognized by way of fixing puzzles both dreamt throughout the evening, or on notes given to you by purchasers, and a few of these areas then reveal their very own detailed maps to discover, similar to the 2 flooring of Gleaston Citadel, and the Catacombs beneath town.
That’s quite a bit! And but it by no means feels unmanageable, Unusual Antiquities’ excellent supply ensures you acquire all these parts at a gradual tempo, and the sport is rarely in a rush. You may take so long as you want for each buyer, with none antsy feedback or nagging, which means you may simply calm down and leaf by way of the pages of the books, or resolve to unravel a map puzzle for a break, by no means pressured. Additionally, the sport comes with a touch system when you ever do get caught, and it’s a super-smart one. Reasonably than simply spoiling a puzzle, it begins with way more light nudges, like reminding you to examine a word you obtained, or asking when you keep in mind what a buyer lately stated about one thing. Prompts like these by no means really feel like they’re taking away out of your fixing the puzzle, somewhat simply turning your head to face the fitting route earlier than you begin. Holding asking for extra assist and issues get extra particular, in fact.
However much more than hints, the best way the sport is introduced does wonders for readability. Like Horticulture, the entire sport is performed within the single location of the shop, however this time the store is so a lot better organized. Clients seem within the center, with cabinets stretching off-screen to the left and proper, and cabinets and drawers down beneath. Open the map and it’s unfold out beneath the counter, and the identical desk can be able to…properly, I’m not going to let you know. Hidden throughout this are tiny particulars, little knobs that, if pulled, can reveal secret drawers, and even locations slightly below the counter with room for 3 of the paranormal objects. Place the proper three within the right order (based mostly on different clues you obtain) and much more secrets and techniques are uncovered. It means every thing feels so particular, all that thrill of a ravishing puzzle field, within the cozy setting of a candle-lit magical retailer.
The sport’s puzzles, whether or not the core identification challenges that make up the majority of what you do, or the additional parts that seem within the type of enjoying playing cards or furtively handed notes, are engagingly difficult with out requiring Pentagon clearance to unravel. Each character is an intriguing oddity, and the sport’s general storyline is way more involving than that of the earlier sport. The entire thing has a a lot higher sense of depth, and the sinister undertones really feel extra pronounced, extra intriguing. It’s every thing a sequel needs to be: the identical excellent concept, higher developed in each space, to provide one thing that reaches greater, wider, and deeper.
Unusual Antiquities is out now for PC and Switch, for the ludicrously cheap worth of $16.
