Out of the Blue Games releases an incredible story-rich adventure, American Arcadia, that keeps you coming back for more.
American Arcadia is a story-driven puzzle game that uses first-person and 2.5D gameplay to tell its story. It was developed by Out of the Blue Games, a game development company based in Madrid, Spain. They have previously worked on games such as Call of the Sea, a first-person puzzle adventure. The Publishers of American Arcadia are Raw Fury. They’re known for games like Bad North and Atomicrops.
American Arcadia is incredibly story-rich, and the whole thing plays out almost like a documentary with how it is told. Our main character in all this is Trevor Hills, a guy who lives out just your average ordinary life, but unfortunately, average and ordinary is not what American Arcadia is looking for.
Arcadia is a city stuck in the 70s with an incredibly futuristic look to its technology. American Arcadia is a show about a utopian city stuck in the 70s. Still, it’s also one of the biggest streams in America where every Arcadian’s life is shown 24/7, and they have no idea or say about it. You go back about two weeks before the day Trevor calls “that dreadful day”.
Each character being streamed has its own cast of supporting NPCs, but unfortunately, Trevor has next to no viewers. American Arcadia is losing viewers during this time, and that means that it can’t afford to keep those who don’t get a lot of views like Trevor.
Before anything can happen to Trevor, we meet Angela. Angela is a stage technician working for Walton Media, and Trevor is on her citizen grid. She also happens to be a part of an activist group called Breakout.
Through Angela’s intervention, Trevor starts his long escape from the Arcadia Dome and to his inevitable freedom. When you play as Trevor, you go through the game in a 2.5D gameplay that feels like a sidescroller, and when you take over as Angela, you dive into a first-person view to solve her puzzles and help get Trevor to safety while trying to keep your cover at the same time.
There are multiple times when you have to control things via Angela’s computer and move Trevor at the same time, especially during escape scenes when Trevor is running for his life. The puzzles all have simple solutions, but they seem more complicated when trying to get a character to safety or when you have to multitask between Angela’s POV and Trevor’s.
Although the story can seem disjointed or just cobbled together because of how it is presented, it makes a lot of sense as you go further into the game. You slowly peel the layers of history and intrigue that are hidden behind propaganda and the almost utopian vibe of Arcadia itself.
The cartoon characters that are seen give an almost Disney-like feel to this perfect world where nothing seems to go wrong, although there is a highly sinister undertone to most of the plot you uncover. The biggest thing would be that people outside Arcadia can go to it as tourists, although they will have to act and dress appropriately as they don’t want the Fourth Wall to be broken.
It’s not all running from Interceptors or jumping off buildings. There are times when you have to move the environment around to create a pathway for Trevor to take. However, this isn’t as easy as it seems. For example, there is a part where you have to get Trevor across some Swans that are suspended above a stage. Using Angela’s control through the camera, you can move the wings and head to the perfect position to jump across, although it’s not as simple as it sounds.
The mechanics in American Arcadia are pretty easy to get a handle on as the movement for Trevor is pretty easy, and the harder part only really comes when you are moving things around through the camera controls that Angela has access to.
The art style is great and changes a bit later on as Trevor’s mindset changes during his escape. It helps create an atmosphere where you don’t want to pause the game and just want to see what happens next. While most of the platforming aspects of the game on Trevor’s side can be easy, there are certain times when it can be entirely unforgivable and a little frustrating since you’ll have to redo it multiple times.
The first-person Levels on Angela’s side have a lot of sneaking into places she isn’t supposed to be. The puzzles are a little harder and don’t really require her to climb up to the 20th floor of a building like Trevor. One of the puzzles that may take the longest is when she needs to hide her admin privileges.
However, there is an incredibly frustrating puzzle where you have to hide all of her evidence of being connected to Breakout before her boss breaks into her apartment. Not only do you have to hide over a dozen sticky notes detailing her plan to rescue Trevor, but you will also need to erase the whiteboard and hide any other evidence there is otherwise; it is an instant fail.
Angela’s view, in a way, offers a counterpoint to all the chaos and suffering that Trevor goes through during his escape. There are a lot of clues hidden on both sides that help unravel the story and give hints to the many plot twists still to come as you play.
The character models in American Arcadia are incredibly interesting and take on a Polygon style. However, this works well both in the 2.5D view and first person as the character’s animations are made exceptionally well, making the characters come alive.
The overall sound engineering is great and manages to fit the retro-futuristic 70s style of most of the game, creating a great atmosphere that adds to the highly immersive atmosphere. The voice acting in American Arcadia was phenomenal, but that’s to be expected when Out of the Blue Games pulled in some extremely talented voice actors. The three who stand out the most to me are Trevor, Angela, and Vivian’s voice actors.
Angela’s voice actress, Krizia Bajos, is quite famous for having voiced Akali in League of Legends and Mama Wells in Cyberpunk 2077. And she’s not the only one; Vivian Walton was voiced by Cissy Jones, who voices a character not only in Owl House but also in games such as Life is Strange. Darksiders III and Firewatch, to name a few.
Lastly, we have Trevor Hills voice actor Yuri Lowenthal; He has not only done voices in games but in movies as well. He’s also voiced the Prince in the Prince of Persia video game series, and more recently, he has voiced Peter Parker in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.
The overall graphics of American Arcadia are fantastic and draw out a great mix between a futuristic 70’s style and a more modern setting. The colours are eye-catching and add to the entire concept of a utopian 70’s city and Trevor’s great escape.
Overall, American Arcadia is a fantastically story-rich puzzle game that will keep you on the edge of your seat and make you want to play it again, even after finishing it. The art style, character design, mechanics, and plot of the story come together to create something incredibly unique that most puzzle game players will enjoy, even with some of the puzzles being a little unforgiving.
