Discover a Lost World — Ryte: The Eye of Atlantis Review

I greatly enjoy history and like many others, I’ve always been fascinated with the story of lost worlds so I was excited to review Ryte: The Eye of Atlantis. Inspired by stories of ancient Greece, this VR puzzle game takes players through outdoor markets and sacred temples. The experience will interest VR gamers who enjoy a visually beautiful world that incorporates elements of archeology, mythology, and legend. There’s usually a bit of truth in stories passed down through the ages even if they seem a bit far-fetched and it’s especially fascinating to imagine how those might be brought to life with immersive reality.

When you first enter the game, you go through an easy-to-follow tutorial that’s part of the story itself. You learn fascinating tidbits about your character and also how to use basic mechanics in the game such as your toolbag and magical bracelets that allow you to push or pull objects with a sort of telekinesis. The tutorial is set on the rocks in the harbor.

“Ryte: The Eye of Atlantis melds the captivating mechanics of classic graphic adventure games like Myst with accurate descriptions from ancient Greek philosophers like Plato,” stated Clovis Rossillon, President of Orichalcum Pictures, in a press release highlighting the game’s launch on January 27, 2021.

“We can’t wait for players to explore our authentic, true-to-life vision of Atlantis while forging their own venerable epic in virtual reality.”

Most definitely the developer’s concept of this game drew me in immediately and many of the company’s assertions ring true while other areas left me wanting more.

Visually I loved the game. Obviously a lot of energy was invested in creating an immersive, visually pleasing environment. The statues, lighting, water effects, etc. were all fantastic and the devs deserve huge kudos for this.

There were a few problems with the mechanics of the game, however. Specifically the only movement option is teleportation and I definitely would’ve preferred smooth locomotion. This could simply be a matter of resources since this is a small dev team so hopefully if they’re able to develop it further they could add that option.

One huge problem for me was the fact that I play VR seated and I never could find a way to change my height in game that would enable me to switch from standing to seated mode. While I’ve encountered games before where this was an issue, it’s particularly frustrating to spend 30 minutes looking for a puzzle piece only to finally discover that it’s lying right there on top of a crate, but this is nearly impossible to see as a seated player because your head is level with the top of the crate. Many people play VR games seated so this should always be an option. The lack of this accessibility feature is a serious flaw.

Puzzles are described as challenging and I’d say that’s quite accurate. They’re definitely not easy and while it might be possible to figure out some of the more challenging ones over time, I could’ve used some help. Ultimately I was never able to make it past Chapter 1 because I needed to form a shape with four different objects, but each time I dropped one it went back into my tool box. I might’ve been able to do this with four hands, but not two. VR enthusiasts who are a bit more experienced with puzzle games might be able to figure this out, but I never could.

One other thing that struck me while I was in the outdoor market was the fact that there were no other characters there. This disturbed me a little bit as it seems like perhaps there should be more activity going on around me at a market. This bothered me on two levels. First, I had the impression the game would have more history so perhaps it would’ve been nice to have even static characters that would give you a set of pre-recorded answers. This game is so beautiful and there’s a huge opportunity missed here for it to be even more historically engaging. I would like to have heard more history or even speculations about the ancient world.

Second, the fact that there was no other activity other than my own kind of made me feel less like exploring and more like the objective of the game was simply to move from one puzzle to the next. I would’ve rather been enticed to explore this beautiful world a bit more, but when I walked around, there really wasn’t much else there. It would be great if it felt more like I was being invited to explore the ancient city of Atlantis rather than simply taking a guided tour through it where someone forces me to move to the next stopping point. I wanted to feel like it was still alive when I was there.

In the end, I wasn’t able to finish the game because there were simply some things that ended up being too frustrating. With that said, I want to emphasize an important point here. I’ve received keys before for puzzle games and I’ve never managed to stay in one for more than a brief period. Ryte: The Eye of Atlantis actually held my interest longer than any of the others, including some incredibly popular VR puzzle games. Despite the problems, I find the concept captivating and the developers have made it look so beautiful that I simply wanted more so I would recommend it to others. Meanwhile, hopefully the developers will continue to build on this marvelous idea because it’s bursting with potential.

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