Idearum takes you to a striking landscape that encourages you to think and feel as it explores Platonic myth – to solve its puzzles, but also to let its beautiful songs and lands wash over you.
Idearum follows a soul on its journey to find the city of Atlantis. This journey, drawn from the works of Plato, requires the soul grow to become its perfect self, and to do this, it will pass through seven trials, all based upon liberal arts. These trails take the shape of puzzles for the player to solve, each requiring you take the time to drink in your environments, listen to the songs on the winds within them, and feel the narrative that flows in them.
Idearum is a soothing journey. Becoming your best self sounds like a difficult thing to do, but the act of bettering oneself feels like a release within this game. The opening, which took place in an open desert, had me meandering the dunes, imagining the soft sand against my feet as I explored. Endless lands lay open before me, encouraging my mind to let go and wander as well. I followed a mysterious spirit out there for a time – a hint that not all are welcome or willing to undergo what it will to take to enter Atlantis.
The puzzles that I tried made use of sound, asking me to pick up musical stones and place them in a location that matched the tones they emitted. At first, this felt strange as these tones were discordant against the gentle music that played in the background. It seemed out of place, but as the stones were placed in the right spots, a harmony would come together. Not that these made the music in the background any different, but making this place sound right created this sense of connection with the sounds of this place. I felt less like I was solving video game puzzles, and more like I was becoming in tune (literally) with Atlantis.
While puzzles are the means of moving forward in Idearum, I didn’t feel that was all I wanted to do. The game’s low-poly lands draw the eye and imagination, again encouraging me to stop and take in the purity of Atlantis. Its music was gentle and calming, carrying you away from the stresses and darkness of your own existence to share in this wonderful place for a time. It has an incredible power to lift you from your world and take you to this place of growth and beauty – to let go of ugliness and pain for a time.
I want to see more of this place and take it in. I want to get lost in the embrace of Idearum. It is a genuinely beautiful game of personal betterment – a path to internal peace – and easily one of the more powerful experiences at the Sweden Game Conference this year.
Idearum is currently in development, but you can follow its creation through the developers’ site.
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