Overall, my experience with Tomb of Trials was a mixed one.
So my overall perception of this game is that it's a nice concept but overall too unpolished to be a really good experience. It's unafraid to push story elements aside for gameplay, which is fine, but unfortunately, I wasn't even able to play past level 4.
The beginning levels of the game make for a rather fun experience. Basic but still enjoyable puzzles that anyone can pick up on and figure out. I will say that spike levels can have more difficulty and use some darkness, as the flashlight in the beginning stages is pretty much useless.
The only unintuitive puzzle in the beginning to me was the falling ball on the plank room. The plank also had wonky physics which was one of many annoying little gimmicks of the game. I can go on: The dropping animation takes too long, ball obstacles killing you at the slightest touch (though these levels were generally fun still), etc.
Easily one of the most frustrating rooms was the one with the floating platforms that you needed to place one item at a time on. Things just kept falling into the pit.
The final straw for me was the Y shaped room with the trash chute. So the idea is basically to throw the trash items and ONLY the trash items into the chute, and the ramp will extend? From my experience for some reason throwing non trash items into the chute will stop the ramp from extending and essentially break it, which doesn't seem right. By then I was too frustrated with the game and just stopped there.
Overall the game felt more like a playtest than a game, and just became more of a chore by the end of level 4.
Tomb of Trials is a puzzle game that doesn't mess around.
You will die a couple times guaranteed, whether you like it or not. The puzzles can be very.... puzzling at times for better and for worse, but overall I really enjoyed the puzzles (except the invisible maze and level 7's staircase room where you need to fall precisely from one moving platform to another, though perhaps some changes either visual or gameplay related could solve my issues with these rooms).
The story isn't the focus of the game, but maybe the writing could have been better. Still, I got a chuckle out of the dialogue at times.
If the game will receive more levels/changes later on, I would recommend having some puzzles involving the flashlight (since for now it is only really used for cosmetic purposes, though it can be useful in certain areas), more physics puzzles, make the spikes visible (though I understand that this would make some rooms way too easy), and polish up the picking up and dropping objects mechanic since it can be hard to line up certain objects such as planks. I would also like a level editor, but that's just a personal want.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Tomb of Trials.
Tomb of Trials is an excellent game for anyone seeking a at times challenging puzzle game reminiscent of puzzles and rooms seen in action packed archaeological films like Indiana Jones. The immediate and continuous gameplay pulls you in, and the fun puzzles aren't paused by unnecessary story. The replay value remains high as well with secrets hidden throughout and tough achievements for the 100% players. Great game.
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Overall, my experience with Tomb of Trials was a mixed one.
So my overall perception of this game is that it's a nice concept but overall too unpolished to be a really good experience. It's unafraid to push story elements aside for gameplay, which is fine, but unfortunately, I wasn't even able to play past level 4.
The beginning levels of the game make for a rather fun experience. Basic but still enjoyable puzzles that anyone can pick up on and figure out. I will say that spike levels can have more difficulty and use some darkness, as the flashlight in the beginning stages is pretty much useless.
The only unintuitive puzzle in the beginning to me was the falling ball on the plank room. The plank also had wonky physics which was one of many annoying little gimmicks of the game. I can go on: The dropping animation takes too long, ball obstacles killing you at the slightest touch (though these levels were generally fun still), etc.
Easily one of the most frustrating rooms was the one with the floating platforms that you needed to place one item at a time on. Things just kept falling into the pit.
The final straw for me was the Y shaped room with the trash chute. So the idea is basically to throw the trash items and ONLY the trash items into the chute, and the ramp will extend? From my experience for some reason throwing non trash items into the chute will stop the ramp from extending and essentially break it, which doesn't seem right. By then I was too frustrated with the game and just stopped there.
Overall the game felt more like a playtest than a game, and just became more of a chore by the end of level 4.
Tomb of Trials is a puzzle game that doesn't mess around.
You will die a couple times guaranteed, whether you like it or not. The puzzles can be very.... puzzling at times for better and for worse, but overall I really enjoyed the puzzles (except the invisible maze and level 7's staircase room where you need to fall precisely from one moving platform to another, though perhaps some changes either visual or gameplay related could solve my issues with these rooms).
The story isn't the focus of the game, but maybe the writing could have been better. Still, I got a chuckle out of the dialogue at times.
If the game will receive more levels/changes later on, I would recommend having some puzzles involving the flashlight (since for now it is only really used for cosmetic purposes, though it can be useful in certain areas), more physics puzzles, make the spikes visible (though I understand that this would make some rooms way too easy), and polish up the picking up and dropping objects mechanic since it can be hard to line up certain objects such as planks. I would also like a level editor, but that's just a personal want.
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with Tomb of Trials.
Tomb of Trials is an excellent game for anyone seeking a at times challenging puzzle game reminiscent of puzzles and rooms seen in action packed archaeological films like Indiana Jones. The immediate and continuous gameplay pulls you in, and the fun puzzles aren't paused by unnecessary story. The replay value remains high as well with secrets hidden throughout and tough achievements for the 100% players. Great game.