Abducted Review

I can’t think of a better way than to start my christmas week with the highly-anticipated new episodic science fiction adventure game, Abducted. A mixture of a classic adventure game combined with RPG-lite elements, Abducted delivers on every promise it makes of being a highly immersive gaming experience.

I find myself in some kind of peculiar alien environment with no knowledge of who I am, what I am doing here, or how I came to be in this place. My only friend is the embedded alien computer system attached to my arm that I discover I can communicate with, but with my guide in a frenzy as to why nothing seems to be going as planned, my only hope for getting out alive is to escape as quickly as possible.

Based upon the scenario surrounding an alien abduction, the game itself is packed with a multitude of fantastic original puzzles and a hugely immersive and deeply gripping storyline. A rather popular genre lately, Abducted is a space adventure that plays upon the scenario of an alien abduction. Packed with a multitude of fantastic original puzzles and a hugely immersive and deeply gripping storyline, fans of survival horror games and colossal space sagas will enjoy this one.

From the outset, the dazzling warm hues of red and orange overlaying a beautifully polished visual art style had me mesmerized and sucked straight into the ingenuity of it all. Abducted is a game that likes to see the player work it out of their own accord, and there are a number of ways to begin unravelling the storyline. Walking around the environment and tapping various hotspots will bring up descriptions about objects in the environment, whereas talking to the friendly computer attached to the arm will go into a little more depth with a cryptic question and answer sequence. This builds a background to the story, but the rest is left to figure out alone, so the best bet is to explore the surrounding areas.

The puzzles in center around a terminal that players can either hack or solve to advance further. Alien glyphs are hidden throughout the environment that can be used to solve the cryptic puzzle - or there’s the option of hacking the terminal, but this can be frustrating at the best of times. Since the only guide is the mysterious computer friend, the constant urge to find out more is exciting.

Further on in the game there are a number of action sequences that include escaping from angry alien lifeforms and dodging huge living tentacles. This can be fun but for the most part the game takes on a slow relaxing pace, which some may or may not like.

Since this is only the first episode, don’t expect a whole lot to happen as it’s (in typical form) a story-setting scenario, but as it came to an end I was definitely anxious for more.