Tin Hearts | Review – Lemmings with toy soldiers

Finally the game is available PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch And pcwith VR support (specifically PlayStation VR 2 and Meta Quest 2) is coming this summer.

Let’s find out together whether the world of tin hearts has lived up to our expectations.

Every invention has a story

tin hearts was presented by the developers as a game cleverly mixes puzzle play and environmental narrative, and indeed we can say that it is so. Rather than telling you what’s going on through an opening cinematic, you’ll be thrown straight into the game – and only by exploring the setting will you be able to pull the threads of the life of Albert Butterworth, the protagonist of this adventure, into the to take hand fragments of memories serve as rare interludes.

Not wanting to spoil the surprise, we still want to give you the narrative context so you understand the nuances of the adventure. Albert Butterworth is an inventor of theVictorian erawho is working on the creation of tin soldiers while struggling with his wife’s illness and the resulting separation from his daughter.

Despite a cute and happy appearance therefore tin hearts He tells his story with a touch of melancholywhich combines perfectly with the light-heartedness symbolized by these cute little wooden figures who, along with Albert, will be your main companions throughout the adventure.

While it’s not a particularly memorable story, we still appreciated the narrative part tin hearts; It might not be a plot you’ll remember for years, but the sentimental involvement is inevitable, in part because of the story’s intimacy.

Another strength of the game, besides the narrative area, is certainly the artistic orientation. Not only are the toy soldiers irresistible, the settings are also very successful all the little details of Albert’s house that make it very ‘alive’.

Unfortunately for the character models, who fortunately don’t have much screen time, the story changes: Here the game shows the side, with animations that would be out of place even on last-gen hardware. While it’s not a glaring flaw considering it’s a low-budget title, the dissonance compared to the care with which other aspects of the game were created.

However, there are some observations to report. We noticed it first numerous drops in the frame ratealso in the PlayStation 5 version we tested (you can restore the Sony flagship). on Amazon); Given the nature of the game, this is a minor issue, but we still hope the authors can fix it with a patch.

In addition, the management of camera can be problematic from time to time: the game was clearly developed with virtual reality in mind and the sudden changes in perspective reflect what you’d expect from a VR game – but if you’re playing the “classic” version, these changes are just annoying.

Instead, the excellent tonal range. The game titles alternate more upbeat and light-hearted songs with other, more intimate and thoughtful songs, greatly enhancing the impact of the environmental narrative.

The language for the dubbing was different, which didn’t convince us in different situations and partly undermined the connection to the story.

From the lemming to the tin man

So we come to playing style From tin hearts. As we expected, it is a Puzzle game with a strong narrative componentbut the game consists almost entirely of puzzle stages that are very reminiscent of the immortal lemmings.

It will indeed be our task Lead the toy soldiers (in different numbers depending on the level) from their box to an exitintervene in the environment to achieve this.

So we won’t have direct control over the toy soldiers, we just have to set their pathbecause they limit themselves to continuing on the road ahead, regardless of dangers, dead ends, etc. Our interventions are mainly related to the Placement of some blocksable to change the direction of movement of the toy soldiers.

The blocks have different shapes and can only be pasted in places that have the same shape; Only some special blocks are “free” and can be placed anywhere. In the future we will also enable the possibility to do this manipulate timeSpeed ​​up or slow down the movement of the toy soldiers: this will help us fix bugs quickly and speed up the end of a level once the solution is found.

Little by little we will also unlock access to other of Albert’s inventions, which will be used to build the path to the exit for the toy soldiers.

However, subject to a few additions, the gameplay is tin hearts the gifts the same core mechanics throughout the game, and already after the first internships you will have a clear idea of ​​what to expect. This extremely limited structure is both a strength and a weakness for tin hearts. On the one hand, the game manages to entertain in its own way simplicity and manages to entertain to the end thanks to the progressive increase in challenge ratio.

On the other hand, for some, this structure will be boring even before the credits roll and lack particularly originality or memorability It keeps the game from being anything more than a decent puzzle game to spend 5-6 hours with.

In our case, we have to admit that we have started to feel the heaviness of a formula equal to itself; Even if the approximately 50 levels that the game offers vary depending on the situation, we would have liked a more consistent presence of new gameplay elements to keep the interest high over the duration of the adventure. As it is, the game borrow some yawnsespecially when played over long and continuous sessions.

Definitive, tin hearts It is an unpretentious puzzle that follows the structure of the immortal lemmings telling a much more intimate and touching story, albeit undermined by a technical area that’s not always up to scratch and by a noticeably shaky dubbing.

As already mentioned, the focus of the developers was certainly on the virtual reality version, which is already evident in the control of the camera, which is sometimes strange in this “classic” version and will certainly be more functional as the headset is worn.

The final rating could therefore go up slightly once you get your hands on the VR version (if you don’t have a suitable viewer, you can think about restoring the excellent PlayStation VR 2). on Amazon), which would certainly make more sense for some of the choices made by the developers.

In any case, it’s clear that this isn’t a catchy title, it’s a catchy one good puzzle game which could take a few afternoons and more importantly could be an excellent basis for the future work of the studio which has shown good potential here.