The ghostly mentor I mentioned earlier, whose disembodied voice follows you around, says these Realms were once maintained by people who have since disappeared, leaving their steampunk infrastructure in a state of decay you’ll have to puzzle your way through. There are three “Realms” to explore in Firmament: ice-laden mountains, forested cliffs, and a coastal lagoon. But for a variety of reasons - budgetary constraints, a VR-first approach to world design, and a high-concept premise that isn’t truly revealed until the last moments of the game - Firmament left me wanting much more. It’s the most fun I’ve had solving puzzles since Portal 2 way back in 2011, and it culminates in a narrative twist worthy of M. Like its predecessors, Firmament is beautiful and mysterious, with an immersive Riven-meets- Bioshock aesthetic and clever environmental puzzles that are seamlessly grounded in the story. But suddenly I’m 13 years old again, exploring the islands of 1997’s Riven for the first time.Ĭrowdfunded by a $1.4 million Kickstarter campaign in 2019, Firmament is the new first-person puzzle adventure game from Cyan Worlds, the small indie studio behind two of the best-selling PC games in history, Myst and its sequel Riven. As an adult, video games rarely fill me with awe anymore. When I reach the top of the mountain to see what’s in the valley below, my mouth falls open. The woman tells me more, but I’m already wondering: “What is she lying about?” Outside, snow is falling on a high mountain pass, where massive steam-powered machines have been abandoned between the rocks and icefalls. We’re in a dark room that looks like a WWI bunker filled with pipes and pressure gauges. I can’t tell if the woman is a ghost or a hologram, but she’s definitely dead.
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