Argh heavens vault… cool and engrossing to do archaeology and translation. The language seemed impenetrable until a certain point where it all broke through. I was looking forward to collecting as many passages as I could UNTIL I unexpectedly met the end of the game lol… rip. Had so much more I could have worked on if I could have gone back to do any trading or collabing.

Protagonist was also hugely problematic. I usually keep an open mind about characters but Aliya was unbearable. Yeah no wonder you have awful relationships with absolutely everyone including your mentor you cunt. Lost count of every time she should have said sorry or thank you to Six, or didn’t give a shit about its mobility. And what are you doing having these horrible dialog options with Huang they are literally in YOUR FIELD and some random guy just came up to you and tried to start shit with you because he hates people who study history. And you’re out here trying to alienate your colleague.

The ending itself sucked as well. Went to all these amazing places and that’s it? Quick moral dilemma and we’re done? Ok.

heaven's vault is a unique mystery rpg starring an archaeologist hunting down a missing person, with a primary puzzle mechanic about translating an ancient language. sadly it was lacking someone on the team to say "this part is bad game design." some things that make for good story don't feel good to play, such as not being able to revisit locations you've been before to search for artifacts or clues you might have missed. that said, the world and characters are really fascinating and the breadth of choices makes for a lot of replayability.

80 Days was a very quick all-time favourite for me, so I was incredibly eager to check out the next original Inkle game.

Sadly while the core concept and language deciphering mechanics are fun the simple moment-to-moment experience of getting anywhere completely sucked the joy out of it for me. Getting around in the point and click bits is slow but fine, it's getting between areas that's harrowing. Not requiring enough involvement to be engaging, but requiring just enough to make it tedious. When I realised I'd hit a dead end and would probably need to check out a couple different locations to progress the sense of dread I felt at the prospect made me put this down and never want to pick it up again.