Rivage – Review | A Beautiful Sci-Fi Puzzle Game with Clear Weaknesses

Some games simply ask us to solve a puzzle, while others turn the entire space around us into one. In our review of Rivage, Exnilo Studio’s debut takes us to A.R.E.S., an isolated space station 400 years in the future, where Miranda Vigneau wakes up at 09:32 on Sunday, May 1, 2467, with no trace of the rest of the crew and the same day repeating over and over again.

Rivage is a first-person sci-fi puzzle game from the two-person team at Exnilo Studio, published by Raw Fury and released on September 22, 2026, for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. It is built around exploration, information gathering and a time loop directly tied to the station’s limited power supply. Miranda must discover what happened aboard A.R.E.S., uncover what lies behind the unexplained phenomena surrounding Vesta, restore communication with Earth and find a way out of the cycle in which she has become trapped.

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Story

The story begins with very few answers. Miranda was the doctor on a research mission sent to Vesta, an exoplanet being studied as a potential future settlement for humanity. When she wakes up, her colleagues have disappeared, the station’s power supply is in critical condition and A.R.E.S. has been affected by a series of unexplained phenomena.

The narrative unfolds mainly through emails, personal conversations, audio recordings and notes. Through them, we gradually learn about the relationships, tensions and weaknesses of the people who lived aboard A.R.E.S. The picture we form of each crew member is not handed to us directly, but instead comes together as we gain access to more personal files and communications.

The central mystery remains engaging and gradually provides answers about what happened on the station. Not every character works equally well, and some relationships could have been explored in greater depth, while the main conclusion arrives more abruptly than the many hours of investigation would suggest. Even so, the game succeeds in creating the sense that we are reconstructing a story that has already happened rather than simply having it told to us.

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Setting / Environment

A.R.E.S. is effectively Rivage’s second protagonist. The station is not enormous, but every area has a clear identity: cabins, communal spaces, laboratories, the kitchen, storage rooms, escape areas, the garage and the fusion core all form an environment that we gradually learn almost by heart. There are also a few unusual architectural choices, such as the near-complete absence of conventional stairs and the use of a small transport system to reach the upper level, although these do not undermine the overall coherence of the space.

The biggest success of the environmental design is that the station feels lived-in despite being empty. Books, food packaging, drawings, personal belongings, mathematical notes, research data and small environmental details all contribute to the storytelling. The rooms are not simply visually distinct; they reflect the personality of the person who used them. Amaan’s quarters are filled with plants and dominated by a large aquarium, reflecting his interest in the natural world, while Rafael has left behind a room packed with games. In Miranda’s cabin, books, music and personal objects likewise offer a clearer picture of her life aboard the station.

The unexplained phenomena give the environment an additional layer of identity. In the kitchen, fruit can float like a miniature solar system, while large crates remain suspended in the air inside the garage. Other phenomena affect individual objects, distort time or allow movement from one location to another. Rivage avoids outright horror; isolation and uncertainty are always present, but the overall tone remains closer to mystery and scientific exploration.

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Gameplay

Rivage is played from a first-person perspective and relies almost entirely on exploration and interaction with the environment. We examine objects, read files and personal messages, use computers and terminals, and search for clues that can lead us to the next area or solution. There is no combat, and progress depends on how carefully we observe what is around us.

Interaction often feels like a modern point-and-click game placed inside a three-dimensional environment. An object that initially appears decorative may later prove to be part of a puzzle, while information from different rooms often needs to be combined. This makes exploration an integral part of the puzzles rather than simply a way of moving from one to the next.

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Puzzles and the K9 System

The puzzles cover a fairly broad range. One of the clearest examples asks us to place resistors on a circuit board so that the circuit reaches the required power output, with all the necessary information built into the diagram itself. Elsewhere, we need to identify products inside vending machines, cross-reference their SKU numbers and barcodes, and trigger a restock in order to obtain an access card. There is also a command-line puzzle involving the transfer of a flashlight upgrade to a device, where the wording of the command can easily lead to the wrong conclusion.

Other challenges are more technical or involve several stages. We use fingerprints to activate a generator and then complete a circuit to power a shutter, plan the route of a research probe around Vesta so that it follows the correct path in a single attempt, decode information through ASCII to find a code, solve mechanical puzzle boxes that lead to information for terminals or personal safes, experiment with an unusual Rubik’s Cube and, later on, combine materials and chemical elements to create a necessary component. There are also optional puzzles that are more demanding than the main ones and are connected to the true ending.

K9 is the tool that prevents the repetition from becoming completely unbearable. It stores codes, audio files, notes, manuals and solutions we have already discovered. It also includes a screenshot function, allowing us to photograph a code, diagram or board and keep it visible as a reference while solving the next puzzle. Once a complex sequence has been completed correctly once, the game will often automate it in subsequent loops. This is one of Rivage’s strongest design decisions.

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Mechanics

The time loop is activated through an arcade machine in the storage area and can be used whenever we want to restart the day. Resetting the loop restores the physical inventory of items and the state of the station, but not the knowledge recorded in K9. As a result, items we collected often need to be obtained again, while information and digital access remain available. The arcade machine itself, however, is introduced rather abruptly, and its connection to the phenomenon is not explained as clearly as it should be.

The loop is directly connected to A.R.E.S.’s limited power supply. For much of the game, we have only four units of energy available, and every door opened or specific system used consumes part of that supply. Once it runs out, the lights go off and several terminals or machines stop functioning. We can continue moving around for a while with a flashlight, but meaningful progress effectively stops, meaning that every loop requires us to decide in advance which route is worth taking and which actions should take priority.

At its best, the mechanic works like a strategic route-planning puzzle. We enter a loop purely to learn something, return to the beginning and then use that knowledge elsewhere. Upgrades such as the special ultraviolet flashlight open new possibilities, from revealing fingerprints to interacting with certain phenomena and creating copies of objects through specific devices.

At its worst, however, the same system creates artificial delays. Opening the wrong door or attempting a puzzle that requires trial and error can consume enough energy to force another loop before we get the chance to test our next idea. There is no meaningful penalty for the number of loops used, although there is an achievement for completing the game in 25 or fewer, so Rivage encourages players who already know the correct route to approach the game far more efficiently.

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Progression and Exploration

At the beginning, Miranda has the lowest level of access and only a small section of A.R.E.S. is available. Progress comes through obtaining the access cards of the other crew members, discovering new codes, carrying out repairs and acquiring tools that gradually open laboratories, rooms, restricted areas and critical technical sections of the station.

Every new area feels like a reward because it provides both new information about the story and new pieces for future puzzles. There is a genuine sense of satisfaction when a higher-level door that has remained locked for hours finally opens and reveals an entirely new space filled with objects to examine.

Exploration, however, demands a good memory. The game does not feature a traditional progress log or a clear list of objectives, and we may often have already obtained the necessary item without any obvious indication of where it needs to be used. Personal organisation therefore becomes an important part of the experience, and keeping a notepad next to the keyboard is far from excessive.

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Repetition and Difficulty

Rivage is demanding mainly because it refuses to hold the player’s hand. There is no hint system and the initial introduction to its mechanics is minimal, meaning that the first few hours require some adjustment both to the rules of the loop and to the game’s overall logic. Once we understand how it thinks, the flow improves, but later sections can once again create the feeling that we have missed one small but crucial piece of information.

Puzzle difficulty ranges from simple logical sequences to problems that require patience, experimentation or a very specific way of thinking. Some puzzles deliver a genuine “eureka” moment when all the pieces finally come together, while others can be solved through brute force or sheer luck, noticeably reducing the satisfaction they provide.

The main story lasts around 12 to 15 hours depending on how quickly the puzzles are solved, and a first playthrough can easily involve dozens of loops. Searching for the true ending adds extra time and gives players an incentive to tackle the more difficult optional challenges. A second full playthrough makes more sense as a personal challenge, since knowing the routes and solutions can dramatically reduce the number of loops required.

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Graphics, Sound and Atmosphere

Visually, Rivage is impressive considering the size of its development team. The art direction remains consistent throughout the station, with careful use of lighting and colour that combines the sterility of the scientific setting with warmer tones inside personal spaces. Vesta dominates several of the exterior views and provides some of the game’s most distinctive imagery, while the level of detail remains high even in smaller and more confined areas.

The sound design works more subtly, but just as effectively. The music remains calm and understated, helping preserve the sense of scientific isolation without pushing the experience into horror. The performances convincingly convey the fatigue and pressure of a team operating far from Earth, although some recordings sound more rigid than others.

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Technical Features and Control Issues

On PC, where we tested Rivage for the purposes of this review, the game works best with mouse and keyboard, mainly because much of the interaction takes place on screens, terminals and small objects. With a controller, moving the cursor across small interface elements is slow and imprecise, while rotating or moving objects often feels stiff.

Readability is not always ideal either. The cursor does not change clearly enough to indicate what can be interacted with, some text displayed on screens requires very precise aiming, and certain surfaces show noticeable visual grain that makes small details harder to see. We did not encounter any widespread issue that made the game unplayable, but it is clear that the interaction system was designed primarily around mouse and keyboard.

There are extensive graphics and audio settings, fully remappable controls on PC and achievements, but there is no proper save-file system.

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Who Is It For — and Who Is It Not For?

Before reaching the end of our review, it is worth noting that Rivage is aimed first and foremost at players who enjoy escape rooms, challenging environmental puzzles and games where observation matters more than action. Anyone who finds satisfaction in taking notes, returning to old information and planning their next route will find plenty to work with here.

By contrast, it is not a good choice for players who want clear objectives, a consistent hint system or a steady and immediate sense of progression. Anyone frustrated by games that expect them to determine their own next step, or by the idea that a mistake may cost them time, is unlikely to feel comfortable with Rivage’s design philosophy.

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Final Verdict

By the end of our review, Rivage leaves the impression of a game that does not always achieve everything it sets out to do, but has a strong enough identity that its weaknesses do not undermine what it is trying to create. Exnilo Studio did not choose the safest possible direction for its first game, and even when its ideas do not work perfectly, the result remains more interesting than a puzzle game that simply executes a familiar formula competently.

The final result is not as consistent as it could have been, but it is difficult to call it uninteresting. Rivage attempts more than it ultimately manages to deliver with equal success, yet there is a foundation here that deserves to be developed further. For a debut created by a two-person team, that may be the most important thing the game leaves behind.

If you found our Rivage review useful, you can also check out our reviews of Riven and Syberia Remastered, or visit the Game Reviews section of Gaming-Sanctum to find exactly what you are looking for.

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