[quote]A review copy was provided by the developer.[/quote]
[quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote]
[h1]Overall Rating - Mediocre ★★★☆☆[/h1]
[h1]First Impressions[/h1]
Pixel of Memory (PM) caught my eye as an indie puzzle game that seemed compelling enough to the handful of people who'd played and reviewed it. Having finished the game, I do find the positive reviews mentioning the story somewhat confusing, as I'm not really sure what was that compelling about it. There isn't very much to it or shown on-screen, as most of it's implied. Either way, I liked the idea of solving puzzles to restore someone's memories, and gave it a shot.
[h1]Gameplay[/h1]
For each puzzle in PM, the grid will have empty tiles, immovable squares, keys which are your targets, and a set of controllable blocks (I'm just going to call them blocks moving on). The amount of blocks you have match the targets you need to cover with them. Unlike a game like picross, you aren't able to freely move around the board and place the blocks exactly where you want them. Instead, as you stand around the grid, you'll fire them from the side, and they'll stop when hitting either the far edge or a wall.
Using and avoiding the squares in your way, you'll have to get a block onto every target. As you place your blocks, you'll reduce the amount available to shoot, so the order you approach levels is rather important. New mechanics are introduced when you get into new chapters, each of which had about 10 levels in them. Oddly enough, I found some of these much easier to work through than the earliest, theoretically simplest puzzles. Aside from the early, tutorial stages, I swear the easiest one was in the last chapter.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3128811054
[h1]Controls[/h1]
You don't have the option to play PM with a controller, which would have been compatible with the way it works. Admittedly it'd have been slower since you'd need to wrap around the screen though. Ignoring that, using the mouse to line up the pieces works well most of the time. The only issue is sometimes if you're moving near a corner or edge, your icon will flip back and forth from one side to the next. Just be sure that you're in the right place before placing or removing a block.
[h1]Story[/h1]
The game opens with a short cutscene of some guy complaining about a headache and not knowing who he is. Everything fades away and the game just throws you into things. Sometimes when you solve a puzzle, he'll make a short comment or two about the object, but just as often he won't say anything. If you reopen the puzzle there will be a new message related to it, which may or may not pertain to his initial statement. From my perspective, the experience is very broken up and disjointed, which could be seen as an intentional design choice reflecting how it'd be to have amnesia. However, I thought it was hard to stay interested with so few bread crumbs being dropped. I can't care about a person that I know nothing about.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3128811564
[h1]Visuals[/h1]
There are two distinct portions to PM's visuals: those showing the overworld and the puzzles. Looking at the overworld, even though it's pretty basic, you get a decent sense for what an area is like and the objects lying around. Sometimes, an object isn't that well designed, making it hard to tell what it's supposed to be. The shovel was probably the worst offender in this regard. Additionally, since you move from one chapter to the next without any cutscenes or further explanation, this lack of visual presentation harms the immersion and sense of progress. When you play a puzzle, it switches to a grid of squares, which reminds me of a picross puzzle. Like other puzzle titles, the squares reflect the item you're looking at, gaining color after you've solved it.
[h1]Sound Design[/h1]
While playing PM, something that was a let-down for me was the background music. Some may find it relaxing, but the instrumentation is a hair annoying to me with that windwood sort of noise that came through. Overall, I just found it to be a weak song that I didn't really enjoy listening to. The fact it didn't change from one chapter to the next didn't help either. There aren't really any sound effects from the game, which at least means there's no other irritants to worry about.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3128812173
[h1]Pros[/h1]
🌟 Although it looks like a sokoban block-sliding game, it has unique mechanics that make for a distinct experience.
🌟 The story and other aspects to PM have a lot of potential, even if it doesn't measure up ultimately.
[h1]Cons[/h1]
❌ In a later chapter you find out about the ability to undo moves you've made. Why isn't that something you'd have available the entire game?! It's a puzzle game staple, and would have helped me out anytime I made a slip-up earlier.
❌ Puzzles aren't very large, but you can't save your progress mid-way. You either exit and restart completely or finish it first.
❌ Amnesia is an overused plot device.
[h1]Tips[/h1]
🔍 The block that will be placed last follows one of a few simple rules. It's either on the edge of the board or has a permanent block beside it for easy alignment. If those don't apply, it has to have another target square beside it, as one will act as the border for the other.
🔍 Before starting to mess around with the puzzle, figuring out the hardest block to place will be a good starting point. However, you also want to determine which block has to go last.
🔍 For whatever reason, it's really easy to overlook the simple solution. Double-checking each side helped me spot moves I could make.
[h1]Final Thoughts[/h1]
This game falls into a pattern lately where the gameplay itself is alright, but I think it's lacking in presentation and other elements. Certain decisions aren't too harmful, yet can still be a bit annoying. For instance, the character moves so slowly, and that makes it a pain when you're looking for the next puzzle that spawned in an area off-screen. Another anomaly was when he walks straight through a set of doors like they aren't there. Learning new mechanics is a good idea to increase the difficulty and make the puzzles more interesting, but you shouldn't delay abilities that should be included through the entire game, IE being able to undo moves. Plus, despite holding the gameplay together, the story was really lackluster to me, especially with the ending. With the difficulty of puzzles being so haphazard and its other flaws, I wouldn't recommend PM, even though it's a neat idea for a puzzle game.
[quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]Follow our curator page: [b]IndieGems[/b] if you like and want to see more reviews like this one.[/url][/quote]
[table]
[tr]
[th]PC Specs[/th]
[th]Performance[/th]
[/tr]
[tr]
[td]Ryzen 2700
RTX 2070
16GB RAM
ADATA SSD
1920x1080
[/td]
[td]The game ran without incident on default settings.
💖 - PM is healthy
[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
