title image

The Eyes of Ara

Hidden secrets await discovery

Ratings

Age

9+

Category

Puzzle

Languages

English

The Eyes of Ara is an award-winning puzzle-adventure set in a stunningly detailed 3D environment. Alone on a remote island, you must explore an ancient castle to uncover the source of a mysterious radio signal. The game features tactile gameplay where you manipulate complex mechanisms and solve varied riddles to reveal long-forgotten secrets. With a focus on organic storytelling, players discover lost writings and keepsakes to piece together the castle's history. Featuring a minimalist interface and a rich, atmospheric soundtrack, it offers a challenging and immersive experience for fans of the mystery genre.

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

92/100

The Eyes of Ara is an absolute triumph for fans of atmospheric puzzle-adventures. Drawing heavy inspiration from classics like Myst and The Room, it places you on a remote island to investigate a mysterious radio signal emanating from an ancient, weathered castle. From the moment you step onto the grounds, the sense of isolation and history is palpable. The developer has crafted a world that feels lived-in; the castle isn't just a series of puzzles, it’s a narrative puzzle box where the architecture itself tells a story of restlessness, storms, and ghostly lights.

The puzzles themselves are remarkably tactile. You aren't just clicking icons; you are sliding panels, rotating gears, and manipulating complex machinery in a way that feels organic to the 3D environment. What sets Ara apart is its lack of hand-holding. It respects your intelligence, encouraging you to scour environments for hidden notes, symbols, and keepsakes that flesh out the lives of the castle's former occupants. The minimalist interface ensures that nothing comes between you and the gorgeous visuals. If you enjoy the 'First Person Adventure' genre, this is arguably one of the best available on mobile, offering a deep, mind-bending experience with a plot twist that genuinely surprises.

Dinsun reviewed on: Tue Jul 01 2025

Features

1

Gorgeous, immersive 3D environments

2

Intricate, tactile puzzles and mechanisms

3

Hidden secrets and optional collectibles

4

Deep, organic narrative storytelling

5

Sleek, minimalist interface for total immersion

Tips & Walkthrough

Gameplays

Screenshot

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Q&A

The game encourages independent discovery and exploration; however, the environment is filled with logical clues to help you progress.

Ratings & Reviews

Only one word can describe this game: Perfect
Thu Jul 12 2018 AquaNature6K

I am always a sucker for 3D puzzle adventures like The Room, The House Of Da Vinci, Returner 77, and Alleys. This is another Amazing game that I think is in the same level of them. The graphics are amazing, sure the lighting effects are scaled down but this is iOS hardware so you can’t really complain. The puzzles are quite challenging but at the same time they are fun to solve, even though I looked up a walkthrough a few times. The indoors of the castle is really detailed. All the rooms and hallways are fun to explore because of that. I also like the idea of collecting stuff like tokens, photos, toys, etc. Even though I don’t care about them much, It’s always rewarding to find them. Achievements are also a nice surprise! I always like when games like this have achievements. So in general I have 0 complaints. I haven’t finished the game yet, which is good because I will be sad when it’s over. (Can’t believe only 1 person created this, oh my god)

Very mixed reviews on this game
Sun Jul 14 2024 Suzsho

Pros: it's a beautifully produced game with a good story and exquisite graphics in a nice 3D environment.... navigation works well.... there are lots of puzzles, superb attention to detail, and it's long. Cons: clues and puzzles are vague and everything is so spread out that the environment became a hindrance, and there's no map. So if, like me, you're not someone with a photographic memory for where everything is, you can spend lots of time just trying to find rooms that you've been in and want to return to. It's lovely that there are a lot of rooms but after a while it just became annoying. Some rooms only have one thing in them. I got so tired of going all over the place trying to remember where something was. I also agree with the reviewer who mentioned how there are numerous puzzles that require much work and end up only getting you an achievement... doing nothing to advance you in the game. Personally, I don't really care about achievements and each time this happened it was disappointing. I thought I'd had a breakthrough... but no. I could go on, but suffice it to say that the frustration level has surpassed the pleasure level. I'm exhausted and It's not fun anymore. Not sure if I even want to try to finish. This game, while beautiful in many ways, has worn me down.

Too Hard, Not Intuitive, Tedious
Mon Feb 28 2022 Frequent Fandagoer

The title says it all. Too much work, and too much tedious trial and error when solving puzzles, even if you know how they are to be solved. Not always clear when you solved something (missing feedback at times), leading to lots of running back and forth to check. No in-game clues, so have to depend on walkthroughs if stuck. Items do not disappear when picked up, so lots of wasted time picking up things you have seen before. Clues and such stay in inventory even after they are used and no longer relevant, creating bothersome clutter to pick through when reviewing clues. Requires advanced math and physics skills in some sense. Beautiful graphics, but long-winded narratives to read through, making the game a real slog. On some levels, just orienting yourself to move where you want to go can be a challenge. Often did not know which way I was facing, and spent many boring minutes just trying to get to a place I was before. I just wanted the game to be over at the end… having invested the time. As I write, I have only a few steps, and almost want to stop even then, because it is so tedious.

Way to complicated
Wed Jan 05 2022 Dzombie

I’ve played tons of these games but this one is way too complicated. The graphics are beautiful and I wanted to like this game. I ended up deleting after finishing about half of it. Even with a walkthrough I couldn’t get it. The biggest issue is movement. A lot of these puzzles require you to go back and forth between multiple rooms. So you to the hallway and now there are five doors that look exactly the same. And some of those doors lead to more doors. So it’s super tedious to remember which door you need to go to and which one to go back to. Some of the puzzles didn’t need to be solved to move on, so I wasted time on those. The other annoying thing is the coins and photos you collect which seem to be worthless. You finally solve a puzzle you think will help you move on and it’s a couple of worthless coins. A better mapping system would help so you could open a map and move directly to the room would help. Either way started forcing myself to play bc I paid for it only to get annoyed quickly and frankly not caring about it at all. Beautiful graphics though.

Top notch graphics but very challenging
Wed Oct 20 2021 SkyCoffeeTime

If you manage to finish all of The Room series, House of Da Vinci series and all the games from “Glitch Games”, you can get by playing this game without any hints for most of the part. You would know where to look and what to expect. As the game progresses, it gets more difficult and challenging. It can take hours to solve which what makes this game last a very long while. A few hints are coming from reading virtual journals in the game. Map is not needed for this game after you got stuck for so long period of time because by then you already know your way around. The graphic details are top notch but the transitional movements are OK and not so fluid. It has that awkward fade in and out when it should be 3D transitional movement all the way. Overall it’s very immersive game and absolutely a very challenging (and somewhat frustrating) game I ever played.

The Eyes of Ara will floor you.
Fri Jul 20 2018 PendragonHouse

This is beautiful, every nook and cranny that you can explore has so much detail, quirks, and surprises. It has a VERY original story and there is SO much to SEE! I kept getting lost, like a kid in a mansion....all alone and left to explore. The story drives the art and it isn’t one you will have heard before. It is also one THE most challenging games that I can remember. We are talking hours upon hours of wonderful fun, a story you haven’t heard before, a few giggles, it has a plot you must follow and part of you will want to hurry on while the other part doesn’t want to skip a single detail. I have played a lot of games and tested others...this one is going to be one of my all time favorites that will get played again and again. I do SO hope that there will be more amazing stories from this amazing designer.

Horrible game, get better gameplay somewhere else
Tue Jan 22 2019 Lush width

First of all there’s no hints system so if you get stuck you HAVE to cheat and look it up online, Second you keep getting stuck because the puzzles are not explained in the tutorial, in fact the tutorial does practically nothing to explain any part of the game. sometimes the puzzles are the total opposite of what you think they are and it’s really frustrating when you spend so long on them and turns out you’ve been doing it totally wrong this whole time. THIS IS WHY YOU NEED THE HINT SYSTEM. Most annoying thing I find is that besides the main mechanics of the game there are collectibles which makes the game so much more hard and so much less rewarding, she works so hard but you still didn’t even complete the actual game in the end. And last of all the mechanics are horrible, if you want a good compelling game worth five dollars buy the room. This game would greatly benefit from a hint system since the storyline is actually compelling and interesting, but the often times confusing puzzles and mechanics of the game get in the way of that and ruin the experience.

Richly beautiful and challenging
Fri Sep 17 2021 RuthS.

Possibly the most lushly artistic and challenging game I’ve ever played — in a league with The Room 1,2, etc or House of DaVinci, but quite likely better. I’m eight hours in (addictiveness warning!) and every time a door opens to a new room I am startled and amazed by all that is there to see. BUT READ THIS: Yesterday, I was frustrated over what I thought was a bug in the software, and after 30 minutes of “clicking” I zipped off a complaint to the developer website. I HEARD BACK THE SAME DAY from “Ben,” who I think is the game’s creator, and in a back-and-forth conversation of about 5 emails, he showed me that there was no bug — I just hadn’t noticed a slight change in the cavernous room’s surroundings that indicated all was fine. His emails were not only responsive and instant but friendly, respectful and clear. And he didn’t stop answering my questions until he knew he had me back on the right track. This is the first game review i have ever written, but How Not? Both the game and the responsiveness of the website to just one player’s little problem truly blow my mind. It’s totally great…Try it! OK, I want to stop praising and go back to playing now. Cheers.

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