Treasures of The Aegean: An Ark Best Lost

Undercoders' Treasures of The Aegean is described as a hand-drawn historical action thriller with a time loop. 2021 may truly be the year of time loops, but Treasures of The Aegean's doesn't do the mechanic justice or nearly as well as other titles have this past year. The fast-paced parkour platformer begins with your character, Marie, at gunpoint. And unfortunately, that accurately depicts my experience with the game. Much like the time loop mechanic falling a bit short, many other aspects share that same fate. Whether it be platforming, character writing, the narrative, or puzzles, my time with Treasures of The Aegean felt more like a chore than genuine enjoyment. Treasures of The Aegean is simply too rough around the edges to justify its entry fee.

Presentation

That being said, even the game's bright spots get a little overshadowed. The game features a simplistic but effective hand-drawn art style that enhances one of the game's better overall aspects; the comic book style scenes. In between runs, players will get a bit more backstory revolving around our so-called heroes. Here, that style shines. But in the moment-to-moment gameplay, not so much. The presentation of said hand-drawn art isn't set up to succeed as parts are portrayed blurry and muddied on screen. These muddied aspects annoyed me enough that I preferred playing in handheld mode rather than docked, as the resolution dip favored the game's portrayal better.

Story

Upon playing, the game's systems began to jell as much as they did, thanks to the game's overall mystery coming into play. It doesn't save the game as a whole, but it did become my driving force early on. You play as Marie Taylor, parkour master, and her treasurer hunter companion, James Arthur. While on vacation, an island of a long-lost civilization resurfaces, and both Marie and James set out to explore. You quickly discover this is the island of Thera, home to the Minoans, a society that disappeared long ago but had a history of groundbreaking revolutions. You and James then set out to complete some ancient prophecy and uncover the unknown fate of the Minoans.

It becomes clear that the civilization's advancements trace back to the time loop somehow, but you are unclear why. Marie nor James ever touch on the loop itself in any meaningful way. Your journal tracks your findings from loop to loop, but they never establish how you retain that information.

Our heroes, Marie and James, appear simple on the surface but have dynamic layers. Yet, they aren't illustrated effectively. The dialogue between characters is basic and frankly dull. The comic scenes piqued my interest and were fun to engage with on-screen, but that alone couldn't save the game from poor character representation. 

Gameplay

James Arthur, Marie's partner in crime, acts as our guy in the chair and history expert while Marie Taylor is characterized as a parkour master. You control her swift movements in-game, whether leaping over boulders, swinging on ropes, sliding under obstacles, or wall climbing. The platforming feels intentionally loose, which works for the overall feel of the movement except for wall climbing. Wall climbing, in particular, is a very crucial mechanic. Unfortunately, they didn't nail it. It's simply too inconsistent to carry as much weight as it does. As the player, you need to explore hard-to-reach places and sometimes speedily. When attempting to wall climb in these situations, sometimes it just doesn't work while others will, but with no distinction between the two actions.

The game's time loops are expressed in runs categorized as volumes for the story's progression, with the time counting down in the top left for each run. After each run, your guy in the chair, Arthur, swoops in to save you via helicopter. Both characters then discuss their findings as well as their regrets about the island. However, after each run, you are greeted with an illustration detailing the blast from the earth's core. So you, the player, learn that you must solve the secret behind the island, or catastrophe is imminent. Despite the game's run focus, an autosave feature for the story changes your initial starting position on the island.

I expected a life bar next to the run clock, but there isn't one. I expected one due to the game featuring a sort of fall damage. However, if you fall a great distance, you lose your other form of currency; time. With each great fall or gunshot, a full minute will come off of your time. I like this aspect. It favors exploration but also means the only end state is when the clock runs out. This incentivizes the player to explore at a good click, emphasizes the clock above all else, and creates an excellent sense of urgency. One nice touch added is the time lumped on to your total after each run. You begin with around fifteen minutes to explore and get your footing. When you return, you have fifteen minutes and change. Eventually, you reach sixteen-minute runs and continue to grow.

The entirety of the game goes from one puzzle to the next while looking for clues on how to solve them all en route. Most solutions aren't very organic and rely on the player finding said clues. This works until it doesn't. As I mentioned above, the wall climbing mechanic can be nerve-wracking. So, finding every clue needed to solve every puzzle proves a bit lopsided. I did manage to guess my way through some, but it never felt quite right. 

In the menu, you can utilize tabs titled map, prophecy, and journal. The map is pretty straightforward and allows you to mark places on the map. Like open-world games, utilizing and marking said locations on the map proves very useful and maybe the most so ever in a game I have played. I easily got lost several times when attempting to return to a puzzle, but utilizing this feature helped a bunch. The prophecy details the hourglass that fills thanks to the treasures you discover and the value of each item while the journal acts as James' intel gathered.

Surprisingly, the game features something I would define loosely as stealth. Enemy troops station on the island soon after you arrive. When you get near them, one of three exclamation marks appears above your head. One through three detailing how close you are to the severity of imminent danger. Once you reach three and continue to close in, they will chase and shoot you. You cannot touch these troops at all, or it will result in an intermission similar to fall damage amounting to lost time.

On another surprising note, you aren't constantly racing against the clock on the island. Flashbacks will take you elsewhere from Marie and James's past. These playable flashbacks act as a nice change of pace, while some still feature you racing against the clock, but in different fashions, while others ask you to reach the end of said environment.

I was able to overlook the simplicity and lack of overall quality the gameplay posed at the beginning once the hook and gameplay loop presented itself. It's unfortunate because I can see what they were trying to achieve. The story and characters start to ramp up, and the game's systems begin to hum together. Admittedly not perfect, but the combinations of racing against the clock, avoiding troops, solving puzzles, and partaking in parkour works if only they were all independently touched up here and there. 

Breakdown

Game: Treasures of The Aegean

Developer: Undercoders, Numskull Games

Availability: Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, Switch, PC

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch

Pros:

+ Comic style cut scenes

+ Gameplay hook

Cons:

- Mechanics are rough

- Character writing isn't allowed to shine

- Wall climbing

Final Thoughts

Treasures of The Aegean features enticing characters, but a lack of engaging dialogue muddies their total impact, leaving them feeling flat overall. The game has a solid vision, but it needs more rounding out to successfully see that vision through. The game's hook almost works, but relies too much on mechanics that are too rough around the edges to be enjoyable. If wall climbing was just a bit more consistent, I could see players finding enough to hold their attention. But without that minor fix, I can't suggest the game to others without a heavy caveat.

Reviewed by Austin Ernst