Quick Review: Secrets of Raetikon

A bird lost in the mountains explores the ruins of an ancient civilization and discovers its secrets… and the other animals are none too pleased about it.

Playing a bird in the forest.
Feels natural enough.

Secrets of Rætikon is a creation of the studio Broken Rules and was released on January 7th, 2014 in Early Access, with full release in April of that year. It’s a combination of puzzle and exploration. Your protagonist? The aforementioned bird, which finds itself in an unknown area. You’re taught the important mechanics of the game: Fly with the arrows. Flap your wings with the Spacebar, and press E to dive down. Use Q to grab on to an item that you can then carry around as you fly. Your task is to collect little white triangles (known as slivers) scattered around the areas, which you can find by letting out a detecting bird cry with S; the slivers are later dropped into ruins with W. Still no clue how to attack any of the antagonistic wildlife.

Holy crap, this thing is huge!

Soon, the bird finds a giant construct with seven locked cages. Your task is to find idols that will open the seven cages, which themselves are locked into machines that must be opened with a certain number of slivers. On top of the white ones, your aviary protagonist can also collect blue slivers that indicate some sort of progress in the game, and red slivers that let it regain health. Where do you have to go next? You choose. This is basically a 2D open world. Explore, solve the little puzzles involving the ruins, find the idols, and open the cages. 

A puzzle so simple, even a bird can solve it!

The positive aspect is that you can explore to your heart’s content, discover things as you go. The problem is that it becomes quite easy to get lost. Looking for your way back to the big machine so you can stick an idol into it? Don’t lose the idol, don’t die on the way back either… The local wildlife HAAAAATES you. The worst part is that I’ve never really figured out how to fight back against these threats.

The game has a lush art style. The nature around our bird, and the remnants of a civilization, everything’s vibrant. The music is also pretty good. The resulting world is actually quite enjoyable to explore, but it would be a lot better if you weren’t fearing for your life, defenseless, on every screen.

I felt myself wince just looking at this
part of the game again.

I struggled to bring more than one idol back, because I couldn’t find my way around. Open worlds usually have maps for that reason. That’s not even getting into some of the challenges that await your bird as it tries to get the idols. I distinctly remember one of those: The idol appears between two tall trees. Another bird keeps trying to steal it from you. The trees are alive, and they try to catch your bird and steal back the idol every time you try to fly away. I hated that section.

I think I can read that, even without the code.

You can also find symbols that are code for letters of the alphabet, which you can then use to decipher the text on some of the steles you see on your way. But, to be fair, most of the letters were transformed only a little, so you could theoretically read the text even without knowing the code. An interesting idea, but it doesn’t add much to the game.

I tried to play this game some more, but no – I can’t. It annoyed me too much. The difficulty is unfair and the world, which they tried to make pleasant to observe, is anything but pleasant to visit. If you had a means of defense, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad, but too many things can kill you and there’s nothing you can do against them. A map would have helped, more health would have helped. Speaking of health, the worst thing may be the pounding heartbeat sounds that never cease when your health is low. There is no fairness here. I really, really didn’t like it. Not even a recommendation, to be honest. But if you do feel like trying it, head over to Steam and get it for 9.99$.