Heaven’s Vault is exquisite. I’ve finished my first playthrough of the archaeological sci-fi adventure, so the main narrative mysteries like “What happened to roboticist Janniqi Renba?” and “What exactly is Heaven’s Vault?” are known. The reason I immediately headed into New Game Plus is that the real puzzle at the heart of Heaven’s Vault is translating the world’s Ancient hieroglyphics. That’s still unfolding
NEED TO KNOW
What is it? An archaeological code-breaking mystery. Expect to pay: $25/£20Developer: inkle Ltd. Publisher: inkle Ltd. Reviewed on: Core i5-8400k, 8GB RAM, GTX 1060, Windows 10Multiplayer: NoneLink:Official site
Heaven’s Vault is exquisite. I’ve finished my first playthrough of the archaeological sci-fi adventure, so the main narrative mysteries like “What happened to roboticist Janniqi Renba?” and “What exactly is Heaven’s Vault?” are known. The reason I immediately headed into New Game Plus is that the real puzzle at the heart of Heaven’s Vault is translating the world’s Ancient hieroglyphics. That’s still unfolding and it’s absolutely stunning.
As archaeologist Aliya Elasra I’ve sailed the cosmic rivers of the Nebula in my wooden spaceboat. I’ve docked at distant moons, pottered around farms and markets, and chatted with a varied cast of characters, including many little exchanges with my companion robot, Six. (Don’t ask what happened to One through Five). The story mysteries provide a structure to guide your explorations but for me they were always secondary to the joy of collecting new text fragments and teasing out new meanings.
Finding text fragments happens in a number of ways. There are artefacts with carved inscriptions—weapons, oil burners, lintels, sculptures… There are fragments of books. There is graffiti. There are murals.
