One of the core things that sets Rivage apart from many other puzzle-based adventure games is its time loop mechanic. As the protagonist, Miranda, explains in the trailer, players wake up in the same bunk at the same time, with all the puzzles reset, and must figure out what happened to the other crew members of the A.R.E.S. space station.

The story takes place in a space station orbiting an exoplanet dubbed Vesta. The planet is of immense scientific interest because of its potential to harbor life, and Miranda is just one of many crew members aboard A.R.E.S. The gameplay of Rivage features many logic-based puzzles that revolve around using the time-loop mechanic to find the ideal solution.

Environmental storytelling is a core feature of Rivage, with Miranda eventually discovering journal entries and other items that will further help her figure out why everyone has disappeared.

A release date for Rivage was announced back in June with a trailer that gave us one of our first hints of just how strange the story is going to be. Along with solving puzzles, Miranda will also have to learn how to fix some of the broken machinery scattered throughout the space station. However, while originally set for an August 13th launch, Rivage was eventually pushed back to its current release date.

A trailer from last month gave us a closer look at some of these puzzles. Many are complex enough to involve multiple smaller-scale puzzles that tie together.

Exnilo Studio has said one of the core themes of Rivage will be isolation. Various journal entries found throughout A.R.E.S. will also likely further compound the emotional toll faced by Miranda throughout the multiple loops she spends on the space station by herself.

To help make the complicated puzzles more manageable, players will have access to the K9 system, which allows Miranda to log her discoveries and puzzles in one easy-to-reach place. Through this, players will put together solutions to complex puzzles and even discern more of the story, since narrative threads will be easier to spot.

Rivage takes place on a space station orbiting planet Vesta – an exoplanet that is seemingly capable of harboring life. However, Miranda wakes up to discover that her crew has disappeared. Along with this, she also seems to be stuck in some kind of time loop. The trailer showcases how many of the game’s puzzles will revolve around interacting with different aspects of the space station’s systems, which will eventually open up new areas for her to explore and potentially discover more answers.

While there are plenty of logic-based puzzles in Rivage, there also seem to be more complex puzzles that require the player to make extensive use of the game’s time loop mechanics. Aside from Miranda’s own narration, much of the storytelling revolves around finding clues in the environment, and the player getting their hands on various journals and records left behind by the disappeared crew members.

The trailer also showcased some of the environmental puzzle-solving and storytelling in the game, with Miranda needing to find hidden messages that have been written on walls that can only be seen if the player gets their hands on a special light.

One of Rivage’s biggest features is the fact that the A.R.E.S. space station that serves as its setting gives players plenty of ways to interact with the environment. Along with solving puzzles, players will also have to get their hands on various artifacts scattered throughout the space station. There is also quite a bit of research data left all over the place, which will need Miranda’s deft mind for analysis.

With Miranda finding herself all alone, a core theme of Rivage’s story seems to be the emotional toll that isolation can take on a person. This will likely be further compounded by the various journal entries that players will find, which will end up uncovering the relationships between the various crew members aboard the space station before they disappeared.

To help players keep track of all of the details they uncover, Rivage also has the K9 system that allows Miranda to log her discoveries and even puzzle solutions. Owing to the nature of the time loop, players will likely have to find different ways to solve the same puzzles, and a tool like K9 will go a long way to ensure that players don’t end up making the same mistakes more than once.

Another trailer for Rivage was released back in June, announcing its August 13th release date at the time. However, the studio ended up needing more time to finish working on the game, and as a result, it got pushed back to September 22nd. The title is being developed for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

As gorgeous and serene as the locales look, however, something is quite wrong. The crew is missing, and Miranda seems to be trapped in a time loop. Does it have something to do with VESTA, the new world discovered by the station? Probably.

For the time being, Miranda needs to investigate the station for any clues, be it journals or logs, and carefully examine the environment. Among the more logical puzzles, including repairs and realignments, are those that require messing with gravity. Some solutions may not even be solvable in that loop, instead providing solutions for the next.

Rivage is coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC, so we won’t have to wait long to solve its mystery. A free demo is available on Steam, and though progress won’t carry over to the game, it provides an hour’s worth of gameplay to get a better idea of what to expect (aside from pretty visuals).