Archaica: The Path of Light

Oh, the mirror puzzle. A staple of adventure games everywhere. It's the all-too-common brain-teaser where you'll need to position mirrors in order to move the light across the room. If you've ever wished that somebody would turn that bite-sized puzzle into something a lot more complicated, then let me introduce you to Archaica: The Path of Light. After impressing PC gamers back in 2017, this debut release from Two Mammoths is finally finding a home on both the Xbox One and Switch. And not a moment too soon, as far as I'm concerned.

This is an atmospheric puzzler set in a mystical and ancient world full of lasers and mirrors. There's a story here about being the Light Bearer and needing to travel down the path in order to save the world from impending doom, but it's really just here to get us from one puzzle to the next. We'll collect the story piece by piece as we travel across the land and discover the secrets of this fantasy setting.

What impressed me the most is the world that they construct in Archaica. Every step of our adventure looks different, with both subtle and obvious changes to ramp up the tension. Even though the playfield is often quite small, it's cozily nested inside of a much larger and more impressive space. It's here where you'll find hidden crystals and tablets, which you can use to earn hints to the solution and learn more about our hero's journey.

This is one of those puzzle games that starts with a relatively simple concept and then keeps adding onto it with each passing level. You begin with mirrors that bend the light in predictable ways, only to quickly find mirrors that split the feed, bounce the laser at weird angles and changes the color. On top of using new pieces, you'll also find levels that require you to power certain generators, combine colors and much, much more. It does a good job of easing you into the challenge and teaching us everything we need to know in order to conquer the final puzzles. And don't worry about getting stumped, because there are more than enough crystals to help guide you through even the toughest levels.

Archaica: The Path of Light is the kind of puzzle game that focuses on one specific thing and gets it right. Even though I got a little sick of moving around mirrors after a while, I absolutely love the moody and atmospheric level designs. This is a gorgeous game that gives us more story and depth than we normally see in a puzzler. After this debut release, I can't wait to see what's next for Two Mammoths.