Strange Antiquities Review (PC)

Bad Viking’s Strange Horticulture set a benchmark in the world of steampunk puzzling that I wasn’t sure could ever be quelled. I figured, if it was to give its place on the throne to another, then it would have to be an heir and not an illegitimate monarch. But then the next chapter in the two-piece studio’s saga came to light—Strange Antiquities. It wasn’t a direct sequel, though it did make it abundantly clear right from the get-go that it would take the fundamental elements of its source material and deliver an even more exquisite successor to the cult classic. I didn’t need to hear any more than that. It had me at Undermere.

Strange Antiquities serves as a spiritual successor to the developer’s critically acclaimed puzzle hit, Strange Horticulture. In a similar format as before, the game slots you into the shoes of a stand-in curator of arcane relics and powerful tomes, bestial knowledge and repositories of bewildering information. In this saga, however, the experience doesn’t just stretch to mere analytical research; it requires serious consideration, factual analysis and stubborn questioning, which, combined, is astronomically important for the folk who pour their heart and souls into your wealth of experience.

Perhaps I’m jumping a little too far into the fog here. Maybe, just maybe, I’m assuming that you have previously romped through Strange Horticulture and are already equipped with the tools and knowledge to launch an expedition into Strange Antiquities. If I have been a tad premature here, then allow me to dial it back to the first hurdle.

A Little Curiosity Never Hurt Anyone

Strange Antiquities tells the tale of a temporary custodian of a mist-enriched lakeside town antique store—a disoriented Lovecraftian anchor point that gracefully houses curious artifacts and arcane relics, powerful scripture and insightful tomes. As this stand-in custodian, you have the responsibility of acquiring vast quantities of information about the antiques that come into your possession, and using their respective abilities—sizes, scents, patterns and ergonomic characteristics—to fulfill cryptic requests that frequent your attention.

In a nutshell, Strange Antiquities is about finding the necessary remedial mechanisms to accommodate various needs, whether it be a tome for protection, power, or all-encompassing answers to unfathomable questions. Typically, a customer will set foot into your clutches and ask for a solution to a problem, all whilst remaining tediously vague in their conveyance of the circumstances. With that, you have your first task to fulfill: reflect on the information that you have at your disposal—swathes of lofty scripture, for the most part—and determine which item suits which scenario.

Like before, the antiques that you choose to work with carry considerable risks. Case in point, if you happen to mistakenly recommend an incorrect tome to a customer, then the likelihood of a drastic outcome is catastrophically high. And making a wrong decision here, sadly, also means that the ending takes a knock to the head. In other words, if you “wing it” and do whatever feels natural here, then nothing good will ever come to fruition. And that’s something that Strange Antiquities does remarkably well: it informs you that, in order to make headway on your journey, you must go beyond physical analysis. Because here, frankly, you have little room for error. No pressure, though.

I Have a Tome for That

Strange Antiquities isn’t just about unlocking antiques and mulling over their properties with a fine-tooth comb; it’s about engaging with a hollow world that fosters copious amounts of secrets, enigmatic personalities and consequential relationships. Aside from the core gameplay loop that sees you analyzing artifacts and pooling your knowledge to curate an in-depth catalog of arcane data, you also have the option to embrace the world of Undermere and all its misty wonders. With that, you can explore the nooks and crannies of the fog-engulfed world of Undermere, where brief encounters ultimately reveal fresh artifacts for you to analyze, dark secrets for you to discover, and additional clues for your encyclopedia.

It isn’t an easy game by any stretch, though to be fair, Strange Antiquities does reward you for taking the time to onboard its spools of secrets and information, with its alternate endings and consequential effects providing a provoking experience that heeds you to take your time and learn for the sake of not only the folk you come into contact with, but for the future of the town, too. With that, Strange Antiquities finds a good balance between being a somewhat taxing game and a satisfying experience that rewards your efforts.

Of course, there are plenty of cherries to lather into Strange Antiquities, from its ominous candle-lit quarters to its gloomy dwellings, its sombre ambiance to its mysterious beauty. Suffice it to say that, with Bad Viking already possessing Strange Horticulture’s entire tapestry of excellent artwork and existing lore, the studio has been able to weave all of those iconic elements into an even more intimate universe that’s teeming with intricate extras. And to be clear, the artistic flare is there, tenfold. The characters return with more depth, and the world finds even greater ways to build on its existing platform to improve its tomes and mysteries. I just can’t fault any of that.

Verdict

Strange Antiquities builds on its previous fog-drizzled endeavor in the best way possible, with its provoking curiosities and fascinatingly complex undertones of steampunk-esque ambiance providing a powerful foundation for a genuinely mesmerizing experience that gives just as much as it takes. With its dark yet oh-so-intruguing formulaic properties and Lovecraft-like architectural elements in tow, it doesn’t just brand itself as a puzzle game; it fortifies its position as a fantastically unique piece of art that has all of the appropriate qualities of an original exhibit.

If you happened to enjoy the arcane curiosities and secretive nature of Bad Viking’s Strange Horticulture, then you’ll be more than happy to know that Strange Antiquities is, for what it’s worth, a near-perfect spiritual successor for the increasingly popular series. It’s more than a revised iteration; it’s a bulkier tome—an even more exquisite expedition that bears thrice the puzzles and a tremendous amount of added complexity in its overall composition. It’s the next best step for Bad Viking, and arguably one that will help shape the future of the Strange anthology, for better or worse.