Search the very depths of the ocean to rescue your lost fiancé in Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden. Danger is to be expected when exploring the sea, but when your fiancé, Robert, goes missing there’s no hesitation: you have to find him. But it may be that tracing him to the underwater city he’d just discovered will be the easy part; there’s an ancient evil lurking, and you’ll have to find a way to stop it if you want a chance at saving Robert. Investigate the strange abandoned city of Eden and face the secrets of the past in this chilling deep sea adventure.
You wouldn’t know it to look at me, but I grew up in Hawaii; I lived there for almost 20 years. So, when I saw some of the screenshots for Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden, I definitely wanted to give it a shot.
I love the sea in general and SCUBA diving in particular, so a hidden object game set in the ocean seemed like a great idea. That in mind, I began the download.
Right away I realized three things: 1. The graphics are really pretty (To be specific, the scenery is really pretty. The characters themselves look like they came right out of the early age of computer generated animation. Yuck.) 2.The voice acting was terrible (The script is pretty cheesy, too, but I found muting the whole thing right off the bat saved me a lot of grief. A lot. Of grief). And 3.I was going to have to chill out if I wanted to get through this game.
Because down there, swimming on the bottom of the freaking ocean, were a TON of freshwater fish. I mean, gigantic schools of African cichlids, which don’t even school and are from small lakes in, you guessed it, Africa, and discus, which hale from the muddy waters of the Amazon.
And man, I know I can be picky; I know that not everyone is involved with the freshwater hobby, or the saltwater hobby, or SCUBA diving, or snorkeling. But the developers of Abyss: The Wraiths of Edenchose to set their game underwater; they decided the ocean was the place to be. And it wouldn’t have taken 10 minutes to ensure the fish they thought looked neat and stuck down there belonged. Not 10 minutes.
And, come on, with so many beautiful fish in the sea, why do you have to use discus and African cichlids in your underwater scenes? Why?? It’s sloppy and lazy and more than a little disappointing.
Gameplay itself wasn’t bad; there was a LOT of running around, and the map was well-neigh useless, but the areas were interesting to explore and not so large that I got completely lost (only a little, and that’s what the Hint button is for). I also found the hidden object areas to be completely manageable. I didn’t even need hints, they were so easy.
That in mind, if you really enjoy the challenge of not being able to find anything, you’ll probably be a teensy bit miffed. They were lovely to look at, though.
And then there were the puzzles. Oh, the puzzles. On the plus side, the puzzles and mini-games were really unique, and I enjoyed playing them once I figured out the goal. On the down side, not all the puzzles came with explicit directions, and that meant I spent a lot of time futzing around blindly before I figured out what was going on.
It was super annoying, because there’s also no in-game walkthrough (we like you guys, though, so check out our Abyss The Wraiths of Eden Walkthrough and save yourself some of my pain. We even have a solution to that obnoxious safe puzzle). And when I got stuck, I was stuck; no hints, no explanation, just here: take these things and do something with them.
I don’t need them to solve the puzzle for me, I just need to know if I’m supposed to be getting all the way across the board, or just getting all the pieces on, or trying to reach a particular part or what. Not all of us play dominoes, y’know. Some of us are still working on Words with Friends. There’s a seahorse and a jellyfish. Now what?
So what’s the take-home message, as my mammalogy professor loves to say?
Well, if you hate running around; if you need clear directions; if you’ve never seen a Barbie movie and would like to avoid having to interact with characters that look like they came from one; if you value your sense of hearing; if you have even the slightest interest in seeing the correct kind of fish in the *bleep*bleep* ocean, then my advice is this: skip it. Save yourself the aneurysm.
To be fair, though, Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden is definitely popular for many people. The vast majority of folks love it for its compelling storyline and don’t seem to be a bit bothered by the long list of reasons for my current facial tick.
So, if you’re curious, give it a shot. Maybe it’ll be just right for you. As for this Goldilocks, Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden was too hard, too soft, too cold, and too hot. Liz out.
