I’m not lying if I say that the puzzle and challenge genre is one of my favorite genres, as my gaming skills and ingenuity are put to the test. Fortunately, I had the opportunity to try a new title of this genre developed by a Spanish studio. Road To Devadatta, is the new adventure (and the first) of the Alicante studio Open closebased on an adventure with influences from Buddhist mythology.
I must say that since I found out about its existence, I wanted to try it, because the progress shown seemed very good. Once tested, these are the conclusions I was able to draw from it.
The story focuses on the mystical journey he must travel Helloour avatar, after the disappearance of his uncle robert, who raised him as a child. With this premise, we begin a journey full of unanswered questions, where we will discover and cross small temples, labyrinths and paths full of traps.
Although I won’t go too far into the story, I must point out that you are constantly immersed in a world full of Buddhist references that will provide you with knowledge and clues to solve the various trials. Alo, to find out where his uncle is, he must embark on a journey to purify his soul and worship Devadatta, cousin and sworn enemy of the Buddha who was banished to the underworld. This will bring you serious consequences, including the possibility of losing your life.
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The story is divided into three chapters and as you can imagine, this journey will not be easy, since we will have to face great challenges that will test our qualities as players. Not so much, the mechanical qualities, because in what suits the controls and game systems are quite simple, but they will test our intellectual capacity when it comes to solving the challenges.
From the beginning, in Robert, you face the first challenges that somehow foreshadow, all of which you will find sooner or later as you progress through the story. In few words; a path full of challenges that can challenge your patience. This journey is full of challenges, challenges and puzzles, as well as dark creatures that will try to hunt you down. Once you’ve cleared the path, you must face the Temple to find a way out.
Without a doubt, the highlight of this title are the various tests. First of all, let’s say that they pleasantly surprised me, since they are not at all repetitive and quite original. If we analyze them a little more in detail, we see that they all share the same pattern, they are easy to solve, but not very intuitive. Therefore, the player must spend more time solving the challenge and less time solving it themselves. This makes the length of game time more balanced with the story time, which is much shorter.
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To tell the truth, this is what we are looking for in this kind of genre, we want to break our heads and our patience is constantly called into question. To make it a little clearer, without revealing too much, I will give an example. Most challenges never repeat, which is appreciated. Although there are some that are duplicated, but their resolution is based on a different pattern. For example, during the course you will come across different levers that you will need to activate to go from one side to the other. Each lever has a different solution and different game systems. Therefore, this repeating challenge goes unnoticed for the player to ponder which system and which move is most feasible to emerge victorious.
To make it easier to solve and explore the challenges, each possible object or solution is highlighted in the background. For browsing objects, the title has a simple interface with few features; examining, catching, dropping, as well as running and jumping. Each of them will be more important than the others depending on the challenge at hand.
Finally, I would like to highlight the wonderful setting, full of references to Buddhist culture, very well worked, where a great research work on the history of Devadatta and on this ancient culture is reflected. The only negative about this is that sometimes these references are presented in a very simple or repetitive way. The fact that these are introduced through the little notes scattered around the map or through simple texts can make players lose a bit of perspective on the story, too bad, because we notice that there is an excellent narrative work.
If you’re looking for an Indiana Jones adventure full of challenges and mysteries that will make you think, Road To Devadatta is a title you should definitely try.
