Alchemy: Origins

Michael
Mar 23, 2024
5 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Introduction

If you’ve ever enjoyed the idea of combining basic elements to create new ones, this alchemy game might catch your attention. Starting with just four elements—air, earth, fire, and water—you’ll work your way through a logical (and sometimes illogical) process to discover 409 unique combinations. While the game has its moments of fun and creativity, it’s weighed down by frustrating mechanics and a lack of meaningful progression, leaving it feeling more like a puzzle grind than an engaging experience.

Storyline

There is no story. It is just a typical alchemy game – most of them have no story and only some of them inform you that you are some kind of god or powerful being tasked with something. Because there is no story there is also no real ending to the game and I think injecting some story at the start of the game and creating some kind of ending would help this game a lot. It would also make players feel more rewarded for creating all the possible objects.

Gameplay

You start the game by having only 4 elements – air, earth, fire, water and you have to combine them with themselves and with each other to create more complex objects. And then you combine more complex objects with the elements and other more complex objects and you will do it many times as the task of the game is to create all the 409 possible objects. The good thing I noticed is that for some objects there can be a few combinations that will lead you to the same object. It feels good to find a few different combinations for the same object by yourself especially when all of them are logical.

But I must point out that when combinations are logical like axe and tree creating wood or at least funny like bread and a hole to creating a bagel there were some that just made me stare in disbelief and I would not even consider them existing in the game without the hints system – like combining glass and pancakes gives me a window?! The logical combinations and the funny ones makes you feel good for playing the game because you either think logically or a little outside out of box but still apply logic and it is nice when this is rewarded with new combinations creating new objects but when you combine some random things and they suddenly create something new it does not feel good as there is zero logic and zero thinking involved. I had good fun for first 70% of my gameplay time just by thinking about objects that I have and what can be combined with what. The last 30% was just bad for me as I was constantly locking one object and trying to just spam click other objects just in hope of getting some random combinations without any logic and I was spamming hints button just to know what objects are left that can create anything for me. This leaves a bad taste in player mind after he finishes the game as the last part of the game makes it feel like not logical thinking but random spam was rewarded in the end.

This game has a mechanic that allows you to lock one object so you can just click on all other objects and try to spam possible combinations that way in hopes of creating something new. It also has a button responsible for hints that does put one out of two objects from a possible combination that you didn’t discover into your combine area. Combination of both mechanics make it very efficient to just first click hint button then lock down that object and spam all other objects to find the combination the hint button was hinting at and some others. And while using your own brain to find working combinations is fun – just using hints and locking an object to try just combine it with everything else is not fun at all. But the existence of object locking mechanic and hint button means that maybe this game was developed with that way of playing it in mind. I think the game would be better if some bizarre combinations were removed and replaced with some more logical ones to keep that 409 number of possible ones to be just discovered by the player without hints and spam needed.

I also found out a few bugs. When you click too fast and this happens when you try to spam different combinations by keeping one object locked the game can sometimes just stop responding to your clicks and you have to restart the game to fix that and be able to play again. The other bug I found is that while the game gives you a mechanic that lets you gray out objects that have no more combinations and that is working fine it also lets you just outright hide all these objects and that bugs the game. It makes the game much slower and game responds to player clicks with a second or two seconds delay and that makes clicking the arrows on the bottom stripe frustrating because it does combine the delay response bug with how the hide mechanic works as it is not showing the hidden objects to the player but it still loads them and while you don’t see them you are forced to click past them. What I mean by that is that if you have 30 objects grayed out and now you will hide them you will still have to click the arrow 3 times to get past these 30 objects without even seeing them. This makes the delay bug feel worse as you click the arrows 3 times just to see new objects that you can use. It happens when you are on the all tab and is somewhat less noticeable when you are on other tabs that sort objects into categories – still this should be fixed. It is strange that graying out objects have no impact on performance but hiding them does.

Graphics and Sound

What you see on screenshots is what you get. Everything is clean and icons presenting objects are nice and it is easy to see what all the objects are even when they are at the bottom stripe without the text. I found out that music in this game is a good mix of songs for such game as they enhance the gameplay without taking the spotlight away from it.

Pros

Simple Concept: Easy-to-understand gameplay starting with basic elements and building complexity.
Creative Combinations: Many logical and amusing combinations make discovery enjoyable at times.
Hint System: Provides guidance for stuck players, helping maintain progression.
Clean Graphics: Clear, well-designed icons make it easy to identify objects.
Fitting Music: Enhances the experience without overshadowing the gameplay.

Cons

No Storyline or Ending: The lack of narrative or a satisfying conclusion makes the experience feel shallow.
Frustrating Mechanics: Later gameplay devolves into random clicking and heavy reliance on hints.
Illogical Combinations: Some pairings make little sense, reducing satisfaction from discovery.
Repetitive Gameplay: The absence of variety makes the experience monotonous over time.
Bugs: Clicking too fast or using the hide mechanic can cause performance issues and delays.
Lack of Reward: Completing the game feels unrewarding due to the grind-heavy final stages.
Limited Replayability: Once all combinations are discovered, there’s little reason to return.

Conclusion

This alchemy game offers moments of creativity and fun but is held back by frustrating mechanics, illogical combinations, and a lack of meaningful progression. A decent way to pass time, but don’t expect a rewarding or memorable experience.

Rating: 5.5/10