A jungle temple in the middle of the ice
Aztlan Uncovered is a free third-person adventure puzzle video game that lets you explore a lost temple. Developed by Slappy Inc., this exploration game features a vast tropical jungle suddenly appearing in the middle of a frozen arctic desert—and it is your job to unlock the mysteries it holds. However, while it’s beautifully designed, it’s quite short for an entry to the 2020 Unreal Spring Jam contest in terms of storytelling.
Like a classic puzzle adventure
Aztlan Uncovered is similar in appearance to archaeology-themed games, like the Tomb Raider and Uncharted series. You must explore a jungle housing an ancient temple that’s never been discovered before. However, what’s different here is that this location is strangely found within the ice and snow of uninhabited lands. For some reason, the ice has thawed and revealed this hidden gem to explorers. The game is short, so this isn’t open-world like the mentioned titles.
Everything plays out like a short animated movie—no main menu or settings to tinker at all before you’re shown the beautiful vista of Aztlan. Your character is already on the ground, ready to head out to the curious-looking temple nearby. You won’t find much danger in this puzzle game—similar to RiME and Memorrha—so simply discover all the challenges that await. There are only two mechanics to the puzzles: the time turner and the movable mirrors.
You aim the time turner with the right mouse button and shoot the time bubbles with the left mouse button. This restores broken items and removes immovable objects, which is necessary for completing the light beam puzzles with the mirrors. How you already acquired this magical tool isn’t explained much, though, which is disappointing. The ending also doesn’t have much of a resolution, making it feel like there should be several next areas to tackle.
Too short and feels unpolished
Overall, Aztlan Uncovered is beautiful and is a nice puzzle game like any other. However, it feels far too short and unsatisfying with the start of a story it presents. Mechanics-wise, the tutorial for controls isn’t intuitive—especially for the time turner—and there are controls or actions that you can perform that aren’t even necessary in finishing the game. This beautifully presented the capabilities of Unreal Engine 4, but that’s about it.
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