The Academy: The First Riddle - from developer Pine Studio - is available now for PC, Android, and iOS devices. While the game is inspired by the Harry Potter series, The Academy: The First Riddle creates a mysterious world of its own with thoughtful puzzles that will put players’ brains to work.

It’s immediately apparent that The Academy: The First Riddle draws a ton of its inspiration from the Harry Potter series. A special school for the gifted, magic, mystery, and a main protagonist who everyone runs to for help… it’s all there, really. While much of everything that The Academy: The First Riddle offers is pretty predictable - sometimes, even eye-rollingly so - that didn’t stop me from wanting to keep exploring and learning more about the mystery within the walls of The Academy.

In The Academy: The First Riddle, players assume the role of Sam, one of the new students on the campus of The Adcademy - a prestigious, yet mysterious academic institution that accepts only the world’s best and brightest students. Once officially accepted, Sam is tasked with attending classes while also learning the lore of The Academy, which is steeped in intrigue and rich history - not to mention investigating (with his fellow classmates) the strange occurrences that continue to occur around the school. First and foremost, though, Sam will need to put his thinking cap on.

Riddle Me This

 

The Academy: The First Riddle holds true to its namesake, as there are over 200 puzzles to be solved throughout the roughly 20-hour adventure. The majority of these puzzles come in the form of word problems and riddles, which at first, were quite a shock. My first puzzle came in the form of a numbered word problem. I’m no math whiz by any stretch of the imagination, so this caught me very off guard while making me initially concerned that these would be the typical puzzles throughout the game. I’m glad I was wrong.

As players progress through the game, puzzles become more complex in that they require you to truly think outside the box. Logic, reasoning, and cleverness are required for The Academy: The First Riddle’s puzzles, with cleverness being the primary requirement. For instance, one of the early puzzles asks players to pick a value that is associated with a set of numbers based on a few other examples. The answer has to do with the sum of the number of enclosed spaces from the set of numbers. For example, the number “8” has two enclosed spaces. It’s this kind of out of the box thinking that makes The Academy: The First Riddle’s puzzles unique and enjoyable. It also made solving the puzzles on my first try that much more satisfying.

Keep Your Mind Sharp

The Academy: The First Riddle’s vibe is that of mystery and intrigue, which is elevated by its charming audio and visual design. Whimsical music accompanies players as they make their way through the halls, common areas, and hidden areas of the campus. The visuals are disarming and comfortable, giving off a strikingly familiar feeling of The Sims 4. In fact, it looks almost as if everything was created using The Sims 4, then released as its own game (which isn’t a bad thing in the slightest). The visuals add to the welcoming vibe of The Academy: The First Riddle, which makes it a great title for older kids.

In fact, that really feels like who The Academy: The First Riddle is made for. The game feels like a far more welcoming world than the Harry Potter series that can still appeal to older kids. The Academy: The First Riddle is also a title that I would recommend to parents who are looking for ways to keep their kids’ brains sharp over summer vacation, with its brain teaser-like puzzles that require extra thoughtfulness and work. And, thanks to the game being available on both PC and mobile devices, playing the game is as accessible as it can be to keep kids busy (and entertained) as they explore the mysteries of The Academy.

A PC copy of The Academy: The First Riddle was provided to TheGamer for this review. The Academy: The First Riddle is available now for PC and Android/iOS mobile devices.

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