Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden

“Abyss: The Wraiths Of Eden” is an adventure game, mainly influenced by point-and-click adventures, but there's some 'hidden object' elements thrown in.

You explore a city located under the sea, attempting to find your missing partner. There's a lot of mystery here; the city seems abandoned, except from brief glimpses of a child and a wraith-like creature known as Legate.

The overall story seems pretty vague. In the main quest, you find out the Legates are possessing people and you try to find a way to stop them and rescue your partner. In the bonus prequel, you see the city is densely populated and the Legates are ruling over the people. You don't really get any more information than this, but obviously there is a series of events between this and the main quest. It seems the underwater city was supposed to be a utopia just like in the game Bioshock which also didn't go to plan. The game is generally creepy and there are a few jump scares. It's not a scary game overall, but just be aware of the jump scares and unsettling atmosphere.

There are some cut-scenes and some voice acting, but the voice acting is generally poor. The mouth movements of the characters make them seem really creepy too. I guess it's nice that there are voices and animations.

The puzzles are fairly straight-forward. Often there will be something that hinders your progress like a locked door/chest. You may have to find a key, or find bolt cutters for the chains. An object may be out of reach, and you will need to find an appropriate tool to reach it. An object may be encased in ice and you have to find a heat source to thaw it.

In each screen, there's usually a few objects to interact with and some items to pick up. With your newly acquired item, you can backtrack a few screens and use your item. There are many contraptions/machines that require a puzzle to be solved to use. There's a wide range of puzzles including rearranging tiles, following recipes, and jigsaws.

To acquire some items, you have to do hidden object style games. So you are shown a static scene littered with objects and you are told to find several specific items. Once you see them, you just tap them to pick them up. Some objects are shown in blue which means you need to interact with two or more objects. For example you may be told to find a tool-set but some of the tools are missing. So you need to find the individual screwdriver and drag it to the set before picking it up.

When you access the map, it shows you where you have active puzzles to complete which is very helpful. The menu also contains a step-by-step guide if you really do get stuck. There is an option to skip the proper puzzles if you really don't understand them. It's nice that these options are here and its up to you if you want to use them or not.

I enjoyed my time with “Abyss: The Wraiths Of Eden”, but I wish the story was elaborated on because Eden has a lot more history than it tells you.