The Tartarus Key Review

You know I’m a sucker for a) games the ape the original Resident Evil titles and b) retro, Sega Saturn-era visuals. So when we were approached to check out Vertical Reach’s The Tartarus Key with the promise of both, I was immediately in. And wouldn’t you know it; The Tartarus Key is bloody awesome.

We play as protagonist Alex as she awakes in a strange room. The only clue we’re given is a walkie talkie on the table, and on the other end is Torres, an ex-detective who’s just as confused as Alex. From here, it’s up to us to figure out the puzzle of the room and solve it. This remains true through the entire 4-5 hours of The Tartarus Key, but it somehow never gets less fun – or challenging.

I really dug how Vertical Reach approaches the puzzles in game. Instead of long winded explanations or blatant hints, they favour more subtle clues and suggestions. While this can have the side effect of making it hard to know if you’re following the right lead, generally we’re stuck in one small area until the puzzle is done, so all of the clues and solutions are within our reach. We just need to look a little closer.

This may take the form of environmental clues, such as a painting that seems to offer a twist on the room we’re in, or finding organs for a disembowelled medical mannequin. At other times, a close up look at the items in our inventory will yield results, be it letting us know to read certain clues backwards or piecing together a story in chronological order. Again, some of these solutions can be a bit abstract (a pen and paper definitely came in handy more than once) but the fact that they keep us within a tight boundary helps alleviate most of the frustration. There was one puzzle that I just could not figure out, and coincidentally it was the only one that I was able to come and go from. Even after I got some Google help I was still none the wiser as to how this was solved, but that was the only part I needed a little help with. For the rest of the experience, simply stepping back and rethinking an approach was usually enough.

Crucially, I always felt that the solutions were fair and somewhat clever (outside of the aforementioned one). If you’re familiar with old style Resident Evil logic puzzles you’ll be right at home here.

Along the way, we cross paths with four other characters, each in their own predicament. These puzzles have the extra tension – the possibility of failure. The first, an extravagant billionaire who seems to have crossed the wrong people, requires us to mix a specific drink in order to release his explosive neck brace. It’s all very Saw at times, and fucking it up sees him die right in front of us. When this happens, Alex will return to Torres very solemn and messed up, which affects the ending we can get.

Luckily, The Tartarus Key allows us to save at anytime, anywhere. I’d highly recommend using this feature before committing to a final decision for each of the four characters. I definitely killed all four on my first attempt but managed to round out the game with three out of four alive. This can take a little of the tension out, admittedly, but there’s also no way to repeat sections without playing through the whole game again, so for me this is a great addition.

There’s no voice acting in the game, but the writing is all entertaining and even quite funny at times. Scenes don’t last too long, and speaking to characters in between puzzles yields extra backstory.  There are multiple endings to see too (I naturally got the bad one…).

I’ve got to shout out those Saturn-era visuals though – it’s not uncommon to see newer games flirt with the 32-bit style via crappy filters or taking an artistic licence, but I really feel like The Tartarus Key could have been running on my 32-bit black box of joy (even if I’m sure there’s a lot more technical stuff going on that would melt the machine). I loved the accurate way the textures warped and skew as we move past them, the flickering polys, the chunky characters and even misaligned body parts based on camera placement. It all looks incredibly authentic and really helped craft a creepy, if not scary, atmosphere. Some excellent audio work compliments the visuals too, and all in all pleased this old gamers nostalgic heart.

Conclusion

I had a bloody excellent time with The Tartarus Key. It hit me hard with the nostalgic presentation, and hooked me in with clever, well-crafted, and almost perfectly pitched puzzles throughout.