Heaven's Vault Review

In Heaven’s Vault you play an archaeologist translating an ancient alien language whose decrypting weaves through an unfolding drama. While doing real linguistic work you interact with companions and locals. Your choices can open or close vast swathes of investigative opportunities. In turn, this directs the branching narrative in different ways. Intelligent guesswork is required to translate a large number of inscriptions, while deciphering the motivations of those around you. An ingenious timeline documents every move, and a brief synopsis each time you start playing keeps things accessible even to infrequent players.

It’s a unique and meticulous mystery-solving experience, worth playing not only for a branching story and interactive puzzles, but in how much it trusts and empowers the player to follow (unless they get side-tracked) the complex and mature narrative.