Firmament, developed by Cyan Worlds, channels the legacy of Myst, delivering a visually stunning puzzle adventure set in an enigmatic realm filled with towering structures and cryptic machines. While the game offers a rich atmosphere and challenging puzzles, its virtual reality (VR) implementation feels more like an afterthought than a core feature, which may leave VR enthusiasts wanting more.

Gameplay

Derived from the Latin word firmamentum, meaning “that which supports or strengthens,” Firmament invites players to explore vast, awe-inspiring realms via steampunk-style conveyance pods. You’ll travel to mountaintops and botanical gardens, solving complex puzzles that demand both attention and patience.

Like its predecessors, Firmament challenges players with intricate, logic-based puzzles. You’ll need to engage with massive, mysterious machinery, trying to figure out how the world’s mechanisms work. Instead of a guide or tutorial, you’re left to piece things together through context clues, notes, and environmental storytelling. It’s a true test of problem-solving, reminiscent of Cyan’s past titles, like Obduction and Myst VR. The game rewards patience, encouraging players to observe and experiment rather than rush through.

The core gameplay revolves around using your adjunct tool—a remote-controlled device that connects with various sockets in the environment to manipulate doors, machines, and other interactive elements. Some puzzles are straightforward, but others can feel maddeningly obtuse, sometimes requiring extensive trial and error. Although satisfying when solved, the puzzles can be daunting for players unfamiliar with Cyan’s style.

Despite the immersive setting, the game suffers from excessive backtracking. While manageable on a traditional screen, this back-and-forth can feel tedious in VR, particularly in the absence of more dynamic movement options. If you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed by the complexity of a puzzle, the game allows you to reset to a central location, which also refreshes certain puzzles.

The game spans roughly nine hours, depending on how long you spend piecing together its various challenges. While the journey through Firmament is often visually impressive, the story and overall payoff may leave you scratching your head, wondering what exactly transpired.

Immersion

Firmament excels in creating breathtaking environments, with towering architecture and ethereal vistas. The game’s art direction is exquisite, even if certain graphical elements fall short of modern expectations due to hardware limitations. Despite this, the world is filled with moments of visual wonder that immerse you deeply in its atmosphere.

However, the immersion falters when it comes to VR interactivity. While the visuals benefit from the added depth of VR, the gameplay remains tied to the constraints of the studio’s point-and-click roots. In a medium where VR typically encourages physical interaction—such as climbing, jumping, and manipulating objects in three dimensions—Firmament restricts you to primarily using your adjunct tool to solve puzzles. The world feels less tangible because your actions are limited to pressing buttons or pulling levers, rather than physically engaging with your surroundings in a meaningful way.

The VR mode seems more like an optional layer added on top of a traditional flatscreen game. This is most noticeable in the design of the levels, where you might encounter barriers or obstacles that logically could be overcome with basic physical actions, but the game prevents you from doing so. This breaks immersion and reminds you that the game was not truly built from the ground up with VR in mind.

Comfort

In terms of comfort, Firmament offers both teleportation and smooth locomotion, with customizable options to accommodate different players’ needs. However, the default control scheme can be a bit unusual, with turning mapped to one joystick and movement to another—this might take some getting used to for players more familiar with standard VR controls. The game is comfortable for most players, though there are a few on-rails sequences that may cause slight discomfort for those sensitive to artificial movement.

Final Thoughts

Ultimately, Firmament stands as a beautiful and challenging puzzle adventure that will appeal to fans of Myst and similar titles. Its intricate puzzles and stunning environments are a testament to Cyan Worlds’ talent for world-building. However, its VR mode feels secondary to the overall design, offering little in the way of unique VR mechanics or interactions. For traditional gamers, Firmament will provide a thought-provoking and visually rich experience. For VR players, though, it may fall short of expectations, feeling more like a traditional game with VR bolted on, rather than a fully immersive virtual reality experience.