Aarik and the Ruined Kingdom is a perspective primarily based puzzle recreation from indie developer Shatterproof Video games. Aarik is a younger prince with a bedridden father, lacking mom, and, as you in all probability guessed, a ruined kingdom. Utilizing the king’s crown, the titular prince navigates by way of isometric ranges that twist and remodel to disclose a path ahead.
Over the course of the sport Aarik will obtain particular crystals that award him bonus skills for his quest. These manifest in 4 totally different colours that every have totally different powers. These crystals can flip again time to rebuild destroyed constructions, transfer towers, or management robotic allies to resolve puzzles. These skills serve to boost the puzzles and break up the sport into distinct sections.
Aarik and the Ruined Kingdom emphasizes the comfortable vibe in all elements. The ambiance is chill; the music accentuates the calming nature of the usually easy puzzles. The puzzles are supposed to twist the participant’s viewpoint with out being brain-busting tough. That is by design; Shatterproof Video games desires Aarik to be a chill recreation which you could calm down whereas taking part in. Over the span of the roughly two hours it took to see the journey to the top, I by no means confronted a problem that stumped me.
If something, the one roadblocks encountered on the trail to revive Aarik’s kingdom have been points with controls. A few of the powers have been a bit of spotty once they needed to work with me; The robotic management energy would by chance deactivate after I didn’t need it to, utilizing the telekinesis energy could be powerful to line up the blocks to make them match precisely, and the rewind time energy could be very finicky with the place it might line up the paths to permit passage. The frustration from this was, admittedly, slight however was noticeable sufficient to be disruptive of the general expertise.
Total Aarik and the Ruined Kingdom is a calming journey that may be accomplished in a single sitting. The visuals and soundtrack lend themselves completely to this quaint little journey that doesn’t overstay its welcome. The crystal powers do an amazing job at including some spice to the gameplay, however the implementation of them are a bit sensitive and may trigger some frustration.
This evaluate is predicated on a retail copy of the sport offered by the writer.
A brief enjoyable journey with a couple of hiccups
6/10
Abstract
Aarik and the Ruined Kingdom is a recreation that’s essential characteristic is how enjoyable it may be to resolve some perspective puzzles. Nonetheless, the brief run time is stung with some finnicky gameplay parts.
