Explore a deserted world wherein everyone has disappeared in The Secret of Raven Rock. If you have ever played the Cryptic series of games by 3DMethods, then this game should be familiar to you. If you have not played that series of the game before, then other games that are like The Secret of Raven Rock, include games that are made by Fire Maple Games. These kinds of games are all similar in that they task the player with puzzle solving. In this game, you will have to look for certain objects, play mini-games, and the whole game is played from a first person perspective.
The visual style of the game looks awesome; the scenery looks real when you enter a new room. This kind of visual enhancement is fairly new to these kinds of puzzle and exploration games. One of the visual effects that were really striking was how the room’s scenery would rush past you when you entered it. However, not all of the graphics and art of the game looked good. There were some parts that seemed blurry at first, but the visuals cleared up pretty quickly. Overall, the game was pretty nice to look at, and it seemed you go relax in certain rooms of the game.
Story-wise the game was pretty standard for this kind of game. The humor of the story was funny but nothing special. And the horror elements of the game will not scare anyone. The storytelling and plot of the game were all the old tropes from previous games. So the story choices that the developers chose to use were all the same safe kinds of plot elements. While the game was not boring to play, the plot elements were not that memorable. And since it had such a standard plot, the game did not feel like it had a unique personality.
One great thing about the game was the puzzles were extremely interesting to solve. There were all sorts of different kinds of puzzles, so there was always something new to try out. Playing the game did not feel repetitive at all since there was a good amount of variety to the puzzles that you could play. There were spot the difference puzzles, math puzzles, and even a chess board that had to be played not with chess pieces. And since there were a lot of puzzles to solve, every piece of information that you come across could be a clue to solve those puzzles.
In one part of the game, you had to use your camera to solve it. This puzzle mechanic was similar to the box of candies puzzle that was used in Antrim Escape 2. In that kind of puzzle, you had to shake your device like a box of candies. The use of all aspects of your device was not so smooth in Raven Rock. When solving the puzzle there seems to be no hinting that you had to utilize your device’s camera to solve it.
The game frequently had many confusing points too. In one puzzle, there were over 20 moves to memorize, and during this puzzle, you could not take your finger off of your device, which is just too much! It was really confusing as to why the game developers did not use the in-game journal in order to store that information. You cannot even use the game journal while solving a puzzle.
The controls of the game were pretty responsive. In most labyrinth games, tilt controls are used to around. And usually, those tilt controls are way too sensitive. Thankfully, this was not the case with Raven Rock. Controlling your character, especially during the mini-games was relatively frustration-free.
There is a lot to explore in the world of Raven Rock. This is because there is an in-game world that is fairly vast. And the developers were helpful enough to add the use of a map; this was really useful in moving to different areas. The map could be used as a way to teleport to previously accessed rooms. Players do not have to waste a lot of time whenever they wanted to go back to an area or room.
The audio effects of the game also deserve a special mention. The music tracks and other sound effects that were used really added to the immersive feeling of playing the game. They set the mood and tone of the game, without adding any distracting sound elements. For example, when you enter the crypt you can hear a ghost calling for help.
In conclusion, Raven Rock is a puzzle game that offers an average story, great visuals, and music, good controls and an immersive setting. Overall, this is a pretty solid puzzle game where in you point and click to follow clues. If you are a fan of adventure, mystery and puzzle games, then the $4.99 price on the App Store is definitely worth it.
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