Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden is an underwater mystery adventure involving a lost city, missing people, hidden objects, and supernatural creatures. Developed by G5 Entertainment, this game promises to offer you good entertainment by way of an intriguing storyline and complex mind bending puzzles. Join me as I plunge into the depths of the dark blue ocean to discover the secrets of the Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden.
The Storyline
The Wraiths of Eden begins with a flash back of the last expedition that renowned underwater explorer Robert Marceau undertook before he disappeared. His fiancé, a diver herself is determined to re-enter the dark waters to find and rescue her boyfriend and discover the dark secrets that lie inside the underwater city of Eden.
Once underwater, she discovers that the beautiful city of Eden holds several mysteries; dead corpses that hold clues to hidden passages, cryptic puzzles that hold the key to the mysterious disappearance of several people including Robert, and exotic underwater locations that breed strange supernatural beings who are using mankind for something dark and evil.
Unraveling these mysteries and rescuing Robert and others forms the rest of the plot!
The Journey Through Eden
The journey through the underwater city of Eden involves moving back and forth through several locations within the city, about 40, in fact! This is because the keys to unlocking a door or opening a gateway or drawbridge is hidden in various places across these locations and you need to travel back and forth picking up keys, maps, explosives and tools to help you navigate deeper into the abyss.
When you start off the game, you are initially guided by a tutorial that shows you how to navigate and what things you need to look out for. For instance, a sparkly area signifies a hotspot for hidden objects. When you tap the hotspot you are shown a list of items you need to discover. The challenging part of the hidden object game is that blue items on the list can be discovered only by doing something more. For instance, you might first have to discover a scissors to cut open a package that contains the blue item. The hidden objects game generally don’t take too long, but they are well blended with the background, making the search enjoyable.
Similarly there are complex puzzles that will require some seriously hard thinking! There are electronic circuits you need to connect, secret combinations you need to open, and torn maps you have to put together, all of which are by no means easy, but are not impossible to do either , thereby bringing a fun and challenging element to the game.
You will also find objects hidden beneath old photographs, brochures, and letters. And finding them as you move along is exciting and adventurous. If you don’t want to play a game, you can hit the Skip button or alternatively play a game of dominoes.
All these puzzles and hidden objects reveal items that will get added to your inventory list. You will keep using the inventory to discover and unravel more clues and mysteries.
Another guide you’ll find is the hint button at the bottom of the screen. If you find yourself lost, and that will happen quite a lot, the Hint button will put you on the right path. You won’t be able to use the button too often as it loses power once used and needs to be recharged before reuse. There’s also a map that will indicate where you are at any point of time and where you need to be. You can also check out the Tools scroll bar on the left of the screen to discover your achievements, objectives and notes.
There are three modes you can choose to play the Abyss. Casual, Advanced and Expert levels. While in The Casual level, you see more hotspots, quicker hint recharges, and no penalties for mis-taps, the Advanced and Expert levels will gradually offer less hotspots, slower recharges and penalties for mis-taps.
Entertainment Value
Playing the Wraiths of Eden feels like being part of a movie adventure. There’s not just tapping and clicking actions involved. You also hear and engage in conversations, get a creepy feeling when you’re being watched, encounter supernatural beings who leave warnings and bloody messages to stay away from the city, and view glimpses of the people who have been entrapped by the wraiths, all leaving you with the desire to discover more and reveal the mysteries.
The graphics and animation in The Wraiths of Eden is at its best! You truly get the feel of life underwater and a civilization lost! The developers have managed to bring out the eeriness of the place through some haunting background music adding to the plus factor of the game.
I also love how the mini games are well integrated into the story line. There’s a well established connection between the games and the main plot and you never feel disconnected with the story and your strategy at any point in time.
That said, The Wraiths of Eden is not perfect! As you play the game, you get the feeling that the developers took something really good and made it quite ordinary. While initially the wraiths tend to creep you out, you soon outgrow them. They never seem to really harm you, just appear and disappear like a cheesy movie scene. Secondly, the suspense levels don’t increase as the game progresses. You don’t get a sense of danger and the thrill of the plot is eventually lost. And finally, the biggest disappointment for me was the complete lack of passion in the fiancé’s voice. Whether it is expressing a desire to find Robert or encouraging herself to be strong in the face of danger, the girl maintains a robotic and dispassionate tone, which brings a sense of fakeness to the entire game.
Not Free
Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden may be free to download, but the game is not free. Nevertheless, you can enjoy a few levels of ad-free action, after which you will need to pay $ 4.99 ( there’s a limited time discount of 50% off if you get it now ) to unlock the full game. You can also share your achievements and promote the game through Facebook.
Final Thoughts
Despite the fact that the game is quite pricey and the excitement levels are not as high as I would like it to be, Abyss: The Wraiths of Eden is a game that is unique, fun to play, and offers you a whole lot of entertainment for a few good hours or days, depending on how keen you are on finishing. Repeat play value is quite low, so you would do well to take it slow!
And be prepared to have a lot of free space on your Android (about 48MB) and give it some time to download as well.
Let us know if you liked the game.
