Heaven’s Vault, due out this spring, is a thoughtful narrative adventure following the exploits of archaeologist Aliya Elasra and her robot pal, Six, as they search for a missing roboticist. The new trailer, above, introduces Aliya and shows off the sort of striking places she’ll be exploring as she uncovers lost histories and deciphers forgotten languages.
If I had my way, there’d be nothing but quiet archaeological romps where you learn about the history of fictional cultures and dust off some of their artefacts. Please let this be the next trend after battle royales. 80 Days, also from developer inkle, similarly scratched this very specific itch, though instead of archaeology there was a whirlwind tour of a fictionalised version of the 19th century.
Aliya doesn’t just potter around in ruins, though. She’ll have to deal with living people, not just dead cultures, making new friends and trying to outwit foes as she looks for the roboticist in a reactive, branching story. The developer also teases that things you discover about the past will affect the future, but that the history you construct might not be the truth. Ominous!