Area 86
I love a good puzzle game. And I love the idea of escape rooms (although I’m yet to try one myself in real life). So Latvian studio SimDev’s Area 86 already seemed like a winner for me, personally. You take control of a little robot in a secret space station, whose AI has gone rogue. Other robots are trapped, and you’re the only one who can save them - and stop the rogue AI!
As a physics-based puzzler, Area 86 has a lot of that same confusion as games such as Portal - where there’s a tonne of trial and error as you try to figure out how to escape. Each level has main objectives, as well as optional challenges to complete. One level might want you to do only a few simple things to progress, whilst the optional challenges leave you scratching your head for a while. Interacting with everything, and ensuring that you keep a close eye out for anything marked around the levels to guide you on your quest is definitely required, as some tasks cannot be completed without finding the required info.
Area 86’s control scheme is simple, with movement tied to the left stick, picking up objects with A and interacting with B on Xbox - however, actually controlling your little robot pal is surprisingly difficult at times, with slightly floaty controls that sometimes cause you to skate or bounce further than intended when pulling off a jump manoeuvre. But trying over and over again is some of the appeal with games like this, where the challenge spurs you on. One level required me to rock on a swing to parkour across a gap, and every time I failed I was cursing myself and putting down the controller, only to pick it up again mere seconds later to have another go.
Visually, the levels fit the ‘space-station’ aesthetic that the developers were aiming for: very Portal-esque. It’s a simple style, but one that works well with the style of game, however the high camera angle can be quite frustrating when trying to judge particular jumps or throws. Sound design is similarly simple, with a lot of very mechanical sounds and satisfying clunks and smashes. There’s a slight hint of background music, enough to kill the dead silence but thankfully not distract you.
There are customisation options available for your little robot that can be unlocked, ranging from a pumpkin head to facial hair, to a Santa hat that has been added as part of the new event. I messed around with the options and gave myself the Santa hat and a bunch of other things (including a smiley face mask) and went back to my attempt for one particular task I was finding pretty challenging (as mentioned above). The task is that you have to parkour across two gaps using swings and I just couldn’t do it. Bit by bit though, I was improving. So when I finally achieved it, only to glitch through the exit (and have to quit the level to sort it) - I was ready to throw in the towel. But I decided to try again, and after an excessively long attempt (with lots of cursing!), I finally pulled off the parkour again. And then it glitched again. Nah. I was gutted, as I’d been really enjoying the game and having a lot of fun with it and to now come across a bug that prevented me from completing a level, I thought there’s no way I can continue.
However, I sent a quick email over to Kristaps at SimDevs to make them aware of the issue. And they got back to me super fast. They looked into the issue instantly and discovered that due to the antenna being covered by the accessories I was wearing, it was preventing the exit from triggering. They advised me to take off any headgear as a temporary workaround whilst they get to the bottom of the issue, and do you know what? Less than 8 hours from their initial response thanking me for letting them know about the issue, and they’ve already submitted the patch to Xbox. I’m impressed.
At £8.39 on the Xbox Store, the price is good for the amount of gameplay you get, and with updates including events (such as a Gift Event that is running at the moment) as well as a future Chapter to come with co-op levels available, there’s a lot to keep you coming back to the game. When playing through the levels I had a lot of fun; that frustrated fun that spurs you on because you know what to do… you just can’t quite do it, but when you power through all that, successfully completing all challenges in the room it feels very satisfying. And I can’t wait to see what they add next.
In the end, we decided to give Area 86 the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.
Have you played Area 86 yet? What did you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to SimDevs for the Area 86 Xbox review code!
