Games of 2022: Tunic held the best puzzle solving moment

Contains spoilers for Tunic - you have been warned.

I love how Tunic uses the process of gathering the game’s manual pages to build anticipation for later experiences in the adventure. You may find a page mapping out an area you haven’t visited yet and, upon it, lie little hints which only make sense once you’ve reached the location. It reminds me of how I used to read Pokémon walkthroughs from cover to cover as a child, jotting down little notes in the margins about which Pokémon I’d like to catch in each route. Tunic’s manual is also where I found the secret which came to dominate most of my time with the game - the Holy Cross.

Due to its placement on the manual’s inventory page, I was convinced the Holy Cross was a type of special item hidden somewhere in the world. Yet, by the time I’d reached The Quarry - an area whose dark colour palette and industrial aesthetic made me think the game’s end was drawing near - I had seen no sight of the Holy Cross. (Or so I thought…) Not wanting to miss anything, I decided to put the main quest aside and instead set myself a limit of three hours to carefully explore every inch of the world in search of the elusive Holy Cross.

Read more