I love a good sliding game, but I hate it when games waste my time, and even though [b]the tower: the order of XII[/b] can be a very brief experience, it does the latter very well, while not really excelling at the former.
[b]the presentation is great.[/b] pixel art and chiptune music, plus a story told through nicely-drawn cutscenes. the game is supposed to be the first in a franchise, so they're laying down some lore here, and it has the promise of some good things coming in future titles, not necessarily in this genre, and due to poor sales, probably not anytime soon.
the [b]story[/b]'s about some good guys kicking bad guy butt (they're called the void) and forming an order to keep everything shipshape. of course, some time later evil rears its ugly head again and one of the members, called eleven, goes to investigate, ends up in an unknown world by way of a portal, and has to find his way out.
gameplay is your [b]typical wall-to-wall action[/b] with deadly surfaces, blocks to activate first and teleporters, each level introducing and using one of them. there are slightly moving enemies to get rid of by picking up some magic powder first. they're not even a nuisance, that goes to temporarily safe surfaces, can't stay long there lest you get spiked to death, but they're not too bad either.
[b]no timer, no move limit, no lives[/b], very casual, but also very bland. every area within a level looks the same, hard to tell sections apart, and [b]replaying the 5 campaign levels is necessary to find every secret[/b]. the game doesn't mark portals you've been through previously, so you have to remember.
5 levels doesn't sound like much and it isn't, [b]the campaign takes about an hour[/b] without grabbing every secret, yet it still felt too long because I wasn't enjoying it. there are half a dozen or so sliding puzzles on every level, connected by the same corridors, though different portals lead to some different puzzles that are also hard to tell apart.
I believe there are 3 secrets per campaign level and they should be around the puzzles themselves, the usual hidden wall situation, but I didn't really look for them. replaying levels over and over to take alternate paths would've been a chore, even though I usually enjoy reading more lore.
[b]there are checkpoints before every puzzle[/b], which is handy, death happens, but there are two things wrong with them:
1, no way to continue a game later from the last checkpoint, [b]if you quit mid-level, you'll have to start over[/b].
2, [b]no checkpoints after the puzzles[/b], so every time you get stuck in a loop while exploring, which can happen in portal rooms, you'll respawn before the last puzzle and have to do it again.
good puzzle and level design isn't easy, no two ways about it, but putting down another checkpoint after a puzzle can't be that hard, nor is making them work after quitting a level. better yet, make every area transition a checkpoint, just in case.
[b]no undo either[/b], always a big no and often a dealbreaker, but [b]campaign puzzles are short and easy[/b], so it's not a huge deal, and the more difficult [b]challenge mode[/b] puzzles are there for a challenge, obviously.
you'll find [b]25 extra puzzles[/b] there with multiple mechanics at a time. some are a bit too big, it isn't always easy to tell what's aligned with what, especially with similar stuff in the background, but all of them are unlocked and can be played in any order. there are also [b]9 sets of challenge levels to play without checkpoints[/b], each harder and longer than the one before. I've completed a few challenges, didn't bother with all of them, but I [b]ran into a few bugs[/b], dying for no reason, which is especially serious if there are no checkpoints.
[b]no problem with the controls[/b], wasd or arrows to move, 'e' to activate portals, so you can't enter them just by sliding into them, space advances cutscenes, but controllers are supported as well, and the mouse works in menus. keys don't though, can't move with them, only enter does something.
there are separate volume sliders, which are necessary because [b]music is much louder than sound effects[/b], plus window size settings, [b]screen shake toggle[/b], and there may be an [b]assisted mode[/b] for the campaign somewhere, but I couldn't find it. not that you'd need it.
unfortunately, I can't recommend the game, it's very average and some things don't function as they should, which is a shame after all the work that must've gone into world-building and everything. [b]there are much better sliding games around, play those instead.[/b] I'm still looking forward to future titles in the franchise though, sliding or otherwise, hoping they'll end up being more enjoyable.
