One of the first action-adventure puzzle games I ever played was Tomb Raider, way back in the later days of Windows 95. I can’t really say that I was ever any good at it, but I stuck with it as best I could and eventually, got past the first area. It wasn’t a particularly impressive feat, but keep in mind that I was about 12 years old, and computer games weren’t as accessible as they are now. Now, twenty-something years later, after avoiding puzzle games like the plague, I’ve had another chance to try again.

Developed by MadLight and Published by Leonardo Interactive, Seed of Life is an epic adventure game that kind of feels like it plays in a similar way to the older Tomb Raider titles. Unlike the fan-servicing Lara Croft, however, we play as Cora, a young woman desperately trying to save her dying planet, Lumia, a world that once basked in warm sunlight and covered in strange glowing plants that seem to radiate their own life force.

Unfortunately, an Alien race has appeared and absorbed almost all of the planet’s life essence, leaving the world to die as the sun collapses in a giant ball of blue energy. Cora, who appears to be the only human left alive, takes it upon herself to seek out and reactivate the Seed, a device that can supposedly restore the sun and regenerate the essence of life.

While the story is a little cliché and feels overused, there are some areas of interest that do help to set Seed of Life apart from similar titles. The first of which is an alien artifact that you find very early in the game, assuming of course you manage to fumble your way through the first set of obstacles. I say this because there is absolutely zero tutorial – you really are left to figure things out for yourself.

Once you have the artifact, you are given a little extra direction in regards to where you have to go, as well as being able to use any Lumia you manage to collect along your way. Visiting various consoles throughout the world will grant you abilities that will help you reach your ultimate goal, such as being able to see hidden pathways, or generate an orb of light that protects you from the encroaching darkness.

The glowing plants mentioned earlier will replenish your Lumia, as well as increase your capacity over time, but you’ll want to ensure you return to a checkpoint before you die, otherwise, your progress will be lost, and my experience showed that once you’ve increased your limit using a certain plant, you can’t do it again, even if you’re forced back to a checkpoint, and you’ll find yourself here a LOT. Outside of the immediate location of your starting point, Cora takes damage over time, almost as though it’s a timed event getting from one checkpoint to the next, so looking for ways to increase your HP and prolong your lifespan will be your highest priority. It’s just a shame the game doesn’t really tell you that you can do this. You have to figure this out for yourself.

The puzzles, for the most part, are also really simple to navigate. The enemies follow a very simple patrol route, so navigating past them is really easy, the consoles have a really simple turn-style puzzle that is used to activate them, and areas blocked off by a glowing purple shield will show you the locations of the devices you’ll need to use to deactivate them, and in turn, these devices will contain a piece you’ll need to attach to the consoles to obtain a new ability. The main challenge here comes from not knowing exactly how to get to the next pedestal and working out which alien ability will grant you the easiest access to it.

On a more positive note, the game does advertise Triple-A quality graphics, and I was pleasantly surprised when I loaded in. The glowing blue orb that is the sun immediately stands out as one of my favourite pieces as it burns away in the background, taking center-stage in the skybox.

The textures and colours used on the ramshackle home you start in and the almost real-life appearance of the environments you explore left me in awe, but I do feel like this was slightly let down by an almost cartoony appearance of Cora and the alien Namurians. Don’t get me wrong, Cora herself is a really smooth character model, but there were times that she felt out of place, and this was made even more apparent when she started talking.

Cora’s voice was about as exciting as sitting on dry grass. The kind that scratches you as you brush past it. She lacked any kind of personality and had absolutely zero emotion. It was like listening to the shy kid in class reading a paragraph of the book everyone was reading. There is one moment where she mentions that she is scared, and you can clearly see the punctuation in the subtitles, but she sounded bored – not something you really expect in something that is advertised as having a dramatic and engaging emotional story.

Just like Tomb Raider all those years ago, the biggest puzzle in Seed of Life is the distinct lack of direction, even with the alien artifact working as a kind of compass. The environments are picturesque and I wanted so desperately to explore them, but the built-in death clock prevented this from happening, particularly during the early game.

There is no denying that Seed of Life is a challenging game, as through my hours of gameplay, I was only able to actually unlock 2 of the possible abilities, and even on the lowest difficulty setting I found myself repeatedly starting over at the last checkpoint, but my biggest gripe is just how poorly Cora was voiced.

Written by: Mathew Lindner