The New Classics #39: Abyss of the Sacrifice

 

The Backstory: A Switch remake of a 12-years-old PSP game, and yet another one of these weird English-supporting Asian games I snatched from Play-Asia. I’ve tested three of them so far, and two proved disappointing; will AotS even up the ratio? On paper, it sure could: it’s a Point&Click with puzzles, adventure and VN elements, and I usually love such cocktails. 

 

The Game: Graphics are as barebones as they come, with no charm or style whatsoever — I felt like I was staring at one of these ‘Draw your own manga’ tutorial books. It’s a bit of a pity, but it’s something I can live with. Likewise, the music is insanely irritating, and I wanted to claw my ears off after a few loops; but again, this can easily be taken care of by shutting the sound down. 

 

 

One thing that cannot be alleviated, on the other hand, is the gameplay. There seems to be a thrilling story at work there, and the promise of many a tricky puzzle; however, I couldn’t see any of it, because I didn’t manage to get out of the first room. Let that sink in: I cleared Myst III without a walkthrough back in the days, yet I couldn’t solve AotS’ very first puzzle. I don’t know if this was a glitch or if I was just not doing the right thing, but I didn’t manage to use the items at my disposal; yet beyond that, I couldn’t even figure out where to use them. My character’s leg was stuck under a pipe, and I had to get out by using a needle, a screwdriver and some hose hanging from the ceiling — not exactly intuitive, methinks.

 

 

I finally resorted to running to a walkthrough, betting on the fact that it would help me understand the game’s logic and/or that subsequent puzzles would be more obvious; that’s when I discovered, to my utter dismay, that no English walkthrough currently exists. That pretty much sealed AotS’ fate; as much as I love Point&Clicks, mystery and huis clos, I just won’t play a game whose inner logic I cannot fathom. 

 

The Verdict: Abyss of the Sacrifice won’t even out the aforementioned ratio — nor will it be granted a spot in the collection. I love Point&Clicks, but I won’t allow them to waste my precious time — or worse, make me feel like I’m dumb as a brick.