Pax East is all about new and exciting ideas and that’s what Close To The Sun is all about from Wired Productions. Close To The Sun tells an interesting tale of Nikola Tesla as well as something that has happened on his large ship, the Helios. The Helios housed some of the greatest minds of the 1800’s as well as the main character’s sister. You play journalist Rose Archer, who at the start of the adventure is looking for her sister, Ada, but soon realizes that there is something much bigger going on after it appears it wasn’t her sister who requested her help.
The game plays in a first person scenario, similar to that of the Dishonored series as well as the problem solving/ puzzle solving. You’ll have to figure out basic puzzles to extreme puzzles to advance on the Helios as well as advance the story, one of the first puzzles was getting the elevator operational and that was a little tougher than it should have been.
Being a journalist, you don’t have a way to defend yourself against whatever is causing the issues on the Helios so be careful and when all else fails, run like hell! Running is your best bet at times and will keep you alive as some of the stages are quite long and you won’t want to repeat things if you can avoid them. Since you can’t defend yourself, you will have to think on your feet and avoid confrontations at all costs. At times you have help from your sister over the transponder that she sent you but since you really don’t know what’s going on in the Helios, you don’t really even know if Ada sent that to you. It will be interesting to see if the game is more like Back to the Future, taking cues from history and changing them or going staying the course of history and playing off of Tesla being insane more.
Close To The Sun graphically looks stunning since it’s made with the unreal engine. When you’re running away, you need to be able to see down the hallway clearly and luckily, you can do that! During the demo, I found myself needing to solve each puzzle and figure out what was going on aboard the Helios. You were able to climb over balconies as well as climb up ladders where secrets could be kept. The balcony climb was pretty cool and one of the better parts of the demo. It will be neat to see why the Helios is under quarantine and just who called for Rose in the first place.
Mystery games work in the point and click/first person genre and Close To The Sun in no different. Will Rose be able to find her sister and crack the code of Tesla?