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For the first 10 minutes of Strange Antiquities, I just look at everything. The shelves of the candle-lit shop are already filled with oddities. There's a lot to take in, including a vial full of glowing blue, a small wooden stag statue, a shriveled human hand with a swirl of gold on one finger, and a pendant with a green eye that's definitely looking around as much as I am. I'm obsessed, and I've not even opened the door to a single customer yet.
If you've played the original game, Strange Horticulture, you'll know that this isn't just a shop. While on the surface, yes, it's a place where people come to buy goods, there's a darkness and a curiosity here that makes this one of the best puzzle games I've played since Blue Prince. This little shop is equal parts a library and a puzzle box. Customers come in with specific needs, whether that's something more lighthearted like wanting to have better eyesight to get back into painting to something more sinister, like trying to cure the blackened eye syndrome that's taking over the town. Curses, spirits, and other evocations are a constant in this town, but it's on you to figure out how to help the townsfolk.
Horror tomes
You'll get either a request for an effect or a specific artifact from your denizens, but from there it's over to you. Over the course of the game, you'll gain a number of books that will help you track down the item you'll need. The Strange Artefacts Guide to Occult Objects will essentially become your bible, as it lists out the names of the items and what they can do to help - or hinder. You can narrow down your search from the visual description of the item or potentially the image accompanying the outline, although it definitely won't ever just be a picture of the thing you need. One clue I had was that an object was about the same weight as a human heart, which was a note in another book or scrap of paper I'd found. Suddenly, the weighing scales on the counter made sense.
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Another book might give you a guide to gemstones and their powers, while another lists out hermetic symbols, which will come in more handy than you'd think. It's like unlocking a new language, figuring out what the clues are within the notes, and then applying them to the items lining your shelves.
Handily, you can examine all the objects too, from checking out their color and composition to find out what they're made of, to how they feel, smell, or sound, or even how they make you feel. Nothing like picking up something that you immediately want to put down again to give you a sense that it might not be an item used for the good of mankind. But again that's a choice you also have to make. Sometimes you might get suggestions that two different items might solve a customer's problem - one just might have some… side-effects.
Explore or fail
Part of the puzzle box that is Strange Antiquities is actually finding the items that aren't yet on your shelves. You'll be given clues at the end of each day, as well as from some patrons, that you can solve by exploring the town of Undermere, or even specific locations within it. A scrap of paper with half a letter, a playing card with an odd shape marked in gold, a mention of a statue and a pointing finger, there's so much variety here. I desperately don't want to spoil any puzzle solutions, but some of the ways you unlock new items are so satisfying in a way that makes you feel really clever. Always a boon for any puzzle game. Between deduction and detective work there's so much to love about the way Strange Antiquities presents the problem-solving to be done.
And of course there's the shop itself. The minute you step inside, there's a cabinet over to the left that's locked behind a metal grill with a very obvious keyhole. Another secret panel is hidden behind a crank wheel, clearly missing an amulet of some kind to place inside Indiana Jones-style.
Before long, you're starting to add little tags marking out the items that now have names and associated powers. You start to get a bit more confident, understanding how the books relate to each other, and wading deep in the murky stories and mysteries that are plaguing Undermere. As much as Strange Antiquities is all about the puzzles, it's also about discovering the locals and what the heck is going on. With so much clearly at stake, it's so easy to get lost in this game. And I highly recommend that you do.
Strange Antiquities is out now on Switch and PC via Steam. To see what else we've been enjoying, head on over to our Indie Spotlight series.
