The Descent of the Serpent - Google’s New Game

September 23, 2022 By Omal J

(Image Credit Google)

Google's Arts & Culture division recently released a delightful new educational game about ancient Mesoamerica—The Descent of the Serpent. Additionally, it is available for users to play in their web browsers or through Google Arts & Culture iOS and Android apps.

About the Game

Google created The Descent of the Serpent in collaboration with Mexico's National Museum of Anthropology. As a result, the game has a top-down, simplified gameplay style similar to The Legend of Zelda games.

A short video at the beginning of the game explains the plot of The Descent of the Serpent. According to it, Tezcatlipoca, the Lord of the Smoking Mirror, steals a large artifact while a player's browsing a museum. Following that, a living statue begs for the player's assistance to find the 20 icons on the artifact to stop the world from being overrun by floods. After the player agrees to help, the statue sends the player back in time to ancient Mesoamerica. Furthermore, players can choose one of four cute animal "disguises" for their characters, all of which have roots in Mesoamerican culture. They are— Xolotl (the dog), Xbalanque (the jaguar), Mictlantecuhtli (the owl), and Huitzilopochtli (the wolf). Moreover, to find the missing icons, which appear as gold coins, players must explore beautiful (albeit constrained) settings. In addition, the game will give them a brief history of each icon as they pick one up and direct them to an exhibit on the Google Arts & Culture website if they want to learn more. The Descent of the Serpent

During gameplay, players encounter challenges like roaming crocodiles and monkeys hurling objects at them while they explore. Furthermore, getting hit in the game temporarily stuns players on the easier difficulty. Although, they must remain careful in the "challenge" mode as players are on a timer. And, after five hits, they have to start from the beginning of the level.

What’s More

The Descent of the Serpent is only the most recent educational web experience from Google's Arts & Culture group. In addition, there is the impressive blob opera and a collaborative jigsaw puzzle app created by the group. Besides, the latest game is part of a trend of using games to teach history, like Take Two's CivilizationEDU and Ubisoft's educational Assassin's Creed.

By Omal J

I worked for both print and electronic media as a feature journalist. Writing, traveling, and DIY sum up her life.

The Descent of the Serpent - Google’s New Game

About the Game

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