Glowkeeper is a smart, challenging match-3 puzzle platformer with multi-room puzzles, a somewhat nonlinear map and a merely functional aesthetic. With undo, no redo, minor timing puzzles.
[h3]UI & Basic Game Mechanics[/h3]
Much like the criminally underrated game [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/MondSemmel/recommended/1581890/]The Magic of Three[/url], Glowkeeper combines basic platforming and the ability to make matches of 3 or more adjacent tiles to trigger an elemental effect, which altogether makes for some very solid puzzle design.
In addition to basic WASD movement for the platforming, you match adjacent tiles by clicking on them with the mouse or by clicking the mouse and then dragging a line through those tiles. The solution state of all rooms in the game is persistent, but any individual puzzle room can be reset via R, at which point the player character is moved to the active checkpoint in the room. There's an undo which works decently well, even across rooms; but it can be a bit glitchy or imprecise, and there's no redo in case you undo too far. That said, collected scrolls and almost all fast travel points persist through resets and undo.
Accessibility: There are a few (like 5-ish) timing puzzles based on moving the character while something happens with the tiles you've matched. There's a button to slow down time for such challenges which should make them doable for most players, not to mention the undo, but players with certain disabilities might nonetheless wonder why this otherwise purely cerebral game possibly needed those timing puzzles.
[h3]Aesthetics[/h3]
For me Glowkeeper's aesthetics range from ugly but functional, to actively detrimental until you've learned the game's rules. Fortunately the latter is only an issue for the first half an hour or so. In any case, the game has some unclear visual design which somewhat obscures basic rules. For example there's no visual indication why you can't push rocks into other tiles, or why you can't push them when standing on water.
Still, the game's videos and screenshots are self-explanatory on this point.
[h3]Puzzles[/h3]
The puzzle design is strong, teaches all its game mechanics while needing hardly any text except for room names, and makes full use of *all* its mechanics, no matter how basic. Without spoiling anything in detail, it does things like:
- Matching elemental tiles triggers an effect.
- Since the game state of all rooms is persistent, there are some puzzles that ask you to not just solve a room, but to put it into a particular state.
- Puzzles start out as self-contained single-room puzzles, but two game mechanics introduced halfway through the game allow for some crazy multi-room puzzles.
- There are even puzzles which require the reset or undo mechanics to solve.
I was surprised how much mileage the game got not just out of its game-specific mechanics, but even out of seemingly universal mechanics like resetting a room. Glowkeeper is one of those games that doesn't want to leave any interaction of its game mechanics unexplored: if there's a game mechanic, then there are puzzles for it.
While the single-room puzzles are usually good about making it clear what you need to do (namely reaching another room exit, and/or collecting a scroll), some of the multi-room puzzles are much less clear about this. This can make some of them difficult or frustrating to solve: you might bang your head against the wall of a later room's difficulty, only to realize eventually that the puzzle is literally unsolvable unless you make use of another room, one which doesn't even have to be adjacent. There *is* a hint feature which helps a bit with this, but it's not perfect, particularly for these multi-room puzzles where it would be most needed.
[h3]Map & Progression[/h3]
The map is more or less linear, usually with a clear objective or goal to work towards, but with lots of optional puzzle rooms branching off to the side. You can skip some of these for the regular ending, though there's a very slightly different ending for 100% completion. Speaking of completionists: after you follow the main path long enough, the map tells you the locations of any as-of-yet uncollected scroll McGuffins.
The map is quite big; it contains a few fast travel checkpoints, though I wish there were more.
In terms of difficulty and game length, the map consists of ~97 rooms overall, some of which contain multiple puzzles. The game took me ~7h to conclude, and I looked up hints or partial/full solutions for 20 of the puzzles. There's no in-game Steam guide, but fortunately there's already a full playthrough on Youtube, so you're at no risk of getting perpetually stuck.
[h3]Conclusion[/h3]
If you don't mind Glowkeeper's aesthetics and its (eventually) challenging difficulty, then it has a lot to offer. Just be prepared to either spend a lot of time on some of the later puzzles, or to eventually look up hints or solutions for some of them. Recommended.
And if you're interested in a similar match-3 puzzle platformer, I'll reiterate my recommendation of [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1581890/The_Magic_of_Three/]The Magic of Three[/url].
[quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote]
