AsarchaeologistAliyaElasraI’ve
sailed the cosmic rivers of the Nebula
in my wooden spaceboat. I’ve docked
at distant moons, pottered around
farms and markets, and chatted with
a varied cast of characters, including
many little exchanges
with my companion
robot, Six. The story’s
mysteries provide a
structure to guide your
explorations but for me
they were always
secondary to the joy of
collecting new text
fragments and teasing
out new meanings.
Finding text fragments happens in
a number of ways. There are artefacts
with carved inscriptions – weapons,
oil burners, lintels, sculptures... There
are fragments of books. There is
graffiti. There are murals. Some are
obvious thanks to the UI immediately
marking them out on the screen as
areas to interact with. Others only
appear if you explore the nooks and
crannies of an area.
When you find one you’ll see it
laid out on the screen as a string of
symbols. The raw form is scripta
continua – there are no spaces to
separate words – so part of thepuzzleisactuallyaffixingmeaningto
particular groups of symbols and part
of it is figuring out how to apply
those symbols. To give an example,
say you had a string of text with no
spaces which included the letters
“T O G E T H E R”.
Part of decoding is
figuring out if those are
be read as “together” or
“to get her”.
At first context clues
will be your main
guide. If Aliya describes
an artefact as also
featuring the sign of
the Empire, the word ‘emperor’ or
‘empress’ might appear. If the object
has an obvious function, like a place
of worship or a weapon, that might
help too. You might also just look at
the options the game provides and
try to make the most natural
sounding sentence out of those.
If your translation makes sense in
multiple contexts Aliya will change it
from a speculative meaning to a
definite translation in her dictionary.
These come in really handy because
when you’re dealing with unfamiliar
words the game will show you words
with similar symbols from your
dictionary which might be related.For the more hardcore grammar/
linguistics/logic nerds you can grab
your notebook and deduce more
nuanced systems. At one point I took
a break from visiting locations to pick
through my dictionary, and
established that there are markers
denoting the past-tense, signalling
adjectives and verbs, and indicating
that two concepts are tied to one
another. My most smug moment was
being able to translate fragments
which Heaven’s Vault wouldn’t let
Aliya decipher in-game yet.hieroglyphics
Heaven’s Vault is not perfect.
Sometimes info added to the in-game
historical timeline is a little out of
sync with what the character has
learned from the conversation. The
river is clunky to navigate and
sometimes tells you you’ve gone the
wrong way despite following Six’s
directions. Aliya’s knowledge of
Ancient hieroglyphics feels too small
at the start. Walking around the
moon of Elboreth is annoying. Oh,
and sometimes trawling for artefacts
feels very pixel-hunty. For me none of
these are more than minor irritants,
but others found them more abrasive.
There’s also the animation system.
I really like it but I know that’s not
universal. If you stand still and then
start walking again you’ll see a
ghostly image of Aliya in the spot
where you paused for a second or
two before it fades. To me that’s a
nod to the game’s archaeology theme.
Aliya’s presence leaves imprints in
the world, perhaps footprint or scent.
They fade fast, but they’re on the
same spectrum as the artefacts.
Heaven’s Vault does a beautiful job
of letting you unlock a language, and
thus a dialogue of sorts via a
wonderfullyengagingprotagonist.NeedtoKNow
Whatisit?
Anarchaeological
code-breakingmystery
EXPECttOPaY
£20
DEvElOPEr
inkleLtd.
PublishEr
In-house
rEviEWEDOn
Core i5-8400k, 8GB
RAM, GTX 1060,
Windows 10
MultiPlaYEr
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link
inklestudios.com/
heavensvault/88
Heaven’s Vault
communicates the beauty
of assigning meaning to
symbols, and the people
who wrote them.vErDiCtFinding text
fragments
happens in a
number
of waysH
eaven’s Vault is exquisite. I’ve finished my first playthrough
of the archaeological sci-fi adventure, so the main narrative
mysteries like “What happened to roboticist Janniqi
Renba?” and “What exactly is Heaven’s Vault?” are known.
The reason I immediately headed into New Game Plus is
that the real puzzle at the heart of Heaven’s Vault is translating the world’s
Ancient hieroglyphics. That’s still unfolding and it’s absolutely stunning.Dig Deep
Unravelling thepastinacearchaeology
adventure, HeaveN’svault. By Philippa Warr
Become a traNslator What you do with a text fragment
2
Drag and drop
translations to figure
out where words start
and finish.3
For new terms,
related words appear
above and suggested
translations are below.4
You can revisit
uncertain
translations later armed
with new knowledge.1
The text fragment
appears in an
unbroken string with
translation options below.Heaven’sVault
rEviEW