Review of The Atlas Mystery VR Rating ****
This VR puzzle game takes place inside a run-down movie theatre. You’ll need to solve puzzles to get from one part of the theatre to the next. For the most part, the puzzles are solvable without too much difficulty. I had two instances that required me to go online for help. I hate having to do that, but I hate it even more when I spend hours trying to solve a puzzle and run out of options to try. In almost every case, the answers to solving puzzles are located in the same room. One of the puzzles that had me stumped required me to pick up items from one room to solve a puzzle in another room. You have a knapsack to store items, so, I probably should have figured out that I needed to grab the items I found inside a safe.
The graphics and soundtrack are well done. You’ll spend a lot of time exploring, trying to determine what is window dressing and what are items needed to solve various puzzles. In the lobby, you’ll find two arcade-style games. Unfortunately, even though they seem to work, they’re not required for any puzzle-solving. Each requires money to operate, but there is no money to be found. It was a missed opportunity by the developers who could have added the games to the puzzle-solving. Unless I missed something, which is possible.
There is a story about a murder and attempts to save the theatre from financial ruin, but it doesn’t have a beginning, middle, and end story structure.
It took me a little over ten hours to get through the game, with at least three hours spent trying to solve the puzzles that had me stumped.