Four Fat Chicks -- Treasures of Ra Review

Treasures of Ra

Review by MrLipid
March 2008

I love good puzzle games. Treasures of Ra is a good puzzle game. Ergo, I love Treasures of Ra.

That said, I didn't always love Treasures of Ra. In its initial form, it was not a lovable game. It was a contemplative game that had been saddled with a timer and severe consequences. Run out of time and everything that one had accomplished was lost. Gone. Flushed away. Game over. Start again.

Not fun.

(Not unlike the unpatched version of Secret Chamber.)

Fortunately, the developer of Treasures of Ra, Simon Beal, listened to player feedback and made some adjustments. He removed the timer without compromising the difficulty of the game's challenges, allowing players of the most recent version to mull their moves at leisure.

So what sort of puzzle does Treasures of Ra offer? Ra combines "use mirrors to guide a beam of light" stumpers with "icehouse" puzzles. Icehouse is the Smart Games name for a variant on warehouse (Sokoban) or block-moving puzzles where the player can only push items into place. In an icehouse puzzle, any pushed item slides until it stops, adding an extra layer of complexity.

And there is a lot to push in Ra. There are mirrors, stone blocks, gems, and crates. Mirrors can redirect the light streaming into the tomb, stone blocks can stop the light or stop a mirror once it has been pushed. Gems can change the color of the light passing through them. Crates can stop anything that collides with them or absorb any treasure they happen to pass over. There are also skeletons on the floor that serve as barriers to anything that runs into them. There are stone blocks that can only be destroyed by a light beam of a specific color and floor panels that collapse when traversed by a moving object, leaving a pit into which any subsequent object will fall. Finally, anything can act as a barrier, making possible the correct placement of a mirror or a gem, an insight that is critical to some of the more difficult puzzles.

(Academic aside: Playing Ra requires the player to accept the idea that barriers can be essential to solving a problem. Obstacles as a good thing. Doctoral thesis, anyone?)

There are map fragments scattered throughout the game that, when assembled, will guide players to a hidden chamber. There are also treasures scattered throughout Ra's chambers that, while not essential to solving the puzzle, will increase the player's score.

With 130 chambers to explore, ranging in difficulty from really easy to still not solved, Ra provides players with a hefty helping of diversion. And if the game's chambers are neither numerous nor difficult enough to slake the thirst of serious puzzlers, there is a level editor included to allow players to roll their own.

Graphics and music set the proper ancient mysteries mood, neither overly fussy nor overbearing. All in all, a satisfying expedition through the Valley of the Kings in search of the Treasures of Ra.

Kudos Games also offers Wu Hing: The Five Elements, a fiendishly challenging strategy game. You know the sort. Time to learn the basics: minutes. Time to master the intricacies: you should live so long.

Both Treasures of Ra and Wu Hing: The Five Elements are available as demos on the Kudos Games site. Highly recommended.