Thebasicpremiseseesyou,archaeologist
Aliya Elasra, and a robot companion take
on a request to find missing roboticist
Janniqi Renba. Over the course of the new
demo, Renba’s disappearance is revealed
to be anything but straightforward, calling
into question at least one of your key
relationships and nudging you towards an
investigation of a greater set of problems
rooted in the region’s ancient history.
The way you unravel any of this is by
sailing around the area of space called the
Nebula, exploring locations. As you do so
you’ll be able to interact with both
contemporary sources of information and
ancient relics. In inhabited areas you’ll
chat with people you meet. Poking about
in ruined buildings or investigating glints in
the dirt will reveal artefacts and
accompanying snippets of ancient text for
you to decipher.
Atfirstyourtranslationswillbebased
around context clues and guesswork. But
the more snippets you accumulate the
better you’ll be able to translate. This
processisabsorbing,I’veplayedeach
demo multiple times, even trying to break
the game just to collect more text
fragments and advance my dictionary.
Philippa WarrO
ne of the games I’m looking forward to
in 2019 is inkle’s Heaven’s Vault. The
studio, whose previous work includes
the phenomenal 80 Days, is combining
detective work with archaeology and translation,
and the game is shaping up to be quite special.The past is a foreign language
HEAVEN’S VAULT
THE MORE SNIPPETS YOU
ACCUMULATE THE BETTER
YOU’LL BE ABLE TO TRANSLATERELEASE
Spring 2019DEVELOPER
inkle LtdPUBLISHER
inkle LtdLINK
inklestudios.com/heavensvaultNEED TO KNOW1
You’re not exclusively
focused on the past.
You’ll also discover more
about current social
structures. The farmers on
the moon of Maersi clearly
fear you and are being
treated as an underclass of
some kind. Colleagues at the
university don’t all value
your work and so on.2
Text might be hidden anywhere so it
pays to look everywhere – I’ve found
words and phrases on objects in mud, on
weapons hidden above doors, etched onto
statues, painted onto walls, shared via
conversations with colleagues and more.4
ThetravelisthethingI’mnot quite sold
on yet. You cruise to locations by riding
river-like currents in a ship. In comparison
with the rest of what you do (and within the
confines of a linear demo slice where most
locations are unavailable) it felt a bit dull.6
Refining translations feels great. If a
new word uses similar glyphs to
existing translations you can use those to
deduce it has a related meaning. You can also
go back to old translations and use new
information to inform those at any point.3
Context clues will help
with early translations.
Eagles are a symbol of the
Empire so “Emperor” and
“Empress” are good bets
for objects adorned with
eagles. A mound of earth
with a marker at one end is
likely to be a grave so a
funeral inscription is more
likely there.5
While playing Aliya as
a friendly person
meant more goodwill from
others, I really enjoyed the
options which cast her as a
jerk. No Huang, I don’t want
to listen to your story. Myari,
I’ll only find your friend if
there’s something in it for
me. Six, let’s assume this
guy’s dead and call it a day...Heaven’s Vault
PREVIEW
23