3d jigsaw/path-building/perspective manipulation puzzler series with a fairytale setting. the first two games are mobile-only, I was told it'd be too much work to adapt the controls to pc. would be fair enough, except I went in release order and controls are identical in all the games. in fact, this one has more (and much worse), so it's a fishy excuse to say the least. my reviews are largely the same as well, covering the whole series. despite the store page requirements, playing on win7 is possible.
the unskippable intro (great start) is followed by a mobile tutorial with tapping (even better), part of the first of [b]24 long-ass levels[/b] unlocked one by one. later stages can take 20 minutes or more but there are checkpoints and [b]quitting saves checkpoint progress[/b], so there's that. can't replay an earlier level without losing progress on the current one though, which is stupid.
since it's 3d and you're wandering a world made of cubes, [b]there's a lot of tedium to simply see what all the sides have[/b], then more to make them appear the right way on the right side. another unfortunate inclusion is [b]trial & error[/b], gotta keep rotating colored pillars and entering sometimes unmarked teleporters to find out what's up. there's a [b]hints toggle[/b] but it can make the screen too busy and incomprehensible with all the colors, a small gift and a big curse.
even more annoying are [b]buttons that rotate a tile, or even multiple tiles, when you step on them and/or when you step off[/b], but the tiles themselves can only be rotated manually when you're standing on the button. that's how roterra 2 started right after a reused level from the first game for tutorial purposes, so that's where I gave up and moved on to this, ♥♥♥♥ that ♥♥♥♥. when I found out how big and samey the levels are, I didn't want to play all 100+ spread over 4 games anyway, I surprised myself by doing all 20 in the first game, more than half of this and a few more of the next one.
eventually [b]enemies get introduced too, moving in real-time on set paths[/b]. they simply stop if you block their way, [b]no dying, level reset or anything[/b]. still really annoying, gotta get them out of the way or block their path. [b]switching between characters[/b] is a pain too. there's a lot of it with the camera slowly panning and a window coming up to show what happened elsewhere. handy but often just a waste of time because of all the repetition, and sometimes it's the same screen anyway. there's a reason I don't like 3d puzzlers and [b]this one is simply more tedious than fun, nothing really challenging, just endless busywork[/b]. movement speed seemed fine at first but it really needs a setting to get around faster. [b]no level skip[/b] either.
should've started with this: [b]controls are simply ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up[/b], even more so than in every subpar mobile port failing to realize [b]there is more than one button on a mouse and 100+ keys on a keyboard[/b]. nope, left click does everything. click to move, hold to rotate, hold and drag to rotate in 3d, same as on mobile. level selection is bad too, gotta swipe thumbnails one by one. the [b]keyboard is confined to menu navigation[/b], wasd/arrows plus enter, esc doesn't go back, nor does it bring up or close menus. alt does though, no idea why. can't switch characters with numbers, no hotkey for the hint toggle, nothing.
not sure about the mobile version of this, but [b]the camera can be manipulated now, in the most ridiculous and useless way possible[/b]. and it would be an absolute must, as [b]fixed camera angles are often problematic[/b]. so, click the thumbnail in the corner, select 'rotate', 'tilt' or 'zoom', then adjust a single vertical bar to make those actions happen. here, a screenshot because it's truly unbelievable:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3392282129
and that's not all. left click while in this mode simply centers the map around the cursor, can't manipulate anything, then [b]click 'back' and the camera resets[/b]. what the actual ♥♥♥♥? standard camera manipulation with the right mouse button and the wheel would work, then let me play in the view I set. oh, and clicking the thumbnail again doesn't even remember the angles, goes back to the default overview setup. there's a reset button, in case you mess around with the single slider too much, but with everything reset all the time, it's totally unnecessary.
settings are barebones and buggy but available anytime, and they come up every time a level starts too, wonderful. separate volumes (only toggles on mobile), languages, hints toggle, check controller mapping, the end. no windowed mode, resolutions or gfx settings, and even with sfx muted, frog splash sounds still play. the how to play section is just a video of the beginning of the first level, which is a tutorial anyway, and it can't be paused. weirdly, the same thing in the first two games is just screens to navigate at your own pace, much better.
as usual, the concept is fine, the execution is not, and asking $8 on pc for a $3 mobile game is a joke anyway. still better than 15 or 20 like some scummy devs do, but the way this works (or doesn't) is not something to recommend.
