There are two things I love in the gaming industry, Turn-based combat and puzzle games. Obviously, these two things don’t really meet up all that often, but when they do I am usually very excited. This is where Keen: One Girl Army, a new puzzle game that blends sliding puzzle mechanics with turn-based combat, comes in.

Keen: One Girl Army puts you in the role of 8-year-old Kim, the youngest descendant in a line of female warriors. Guided by her Grandmother, Kim must stop a secret society from destroying her village and save the world. The concept sounds simple, but like any sliding puzzle experience, you’ll have to think strategically and make sure that you move in the right place at the right time.

The controls and gameplay start out simple. By moving using the WASD or Arrow keys, you can slide Kim in any of the four main directions (up, down, left, and right) to navigate levels. Kim will automatically attack when she intersects with an enemy or object in the environment, so really you could play this game one-handed.

However, there is one flaw with this control scheme. If you are a disabled gamer that does not use a typical keyboard, I could see there being an issue here because there are no options to remap the controls at all. Granted playing on a console would rectify this issue for some disabled gamers, specifically playing on the Switch or using the Xbox Accessibility controller, but in 2020 there is no excuse to not have remappable controls in your settings.

The main goal of each level is to defeat all enemies. You can do that in one of two ways, by dashing through the enemy with a slash attack or by stopping adjacent to the enemy and doing a cross attack. Cross attacks allow you to hit more enemies at once, but slash attacks do double damage. Also, as you explore each sliding puzzle level, you can find secret areas with Orbytes, collectibles which can be found throughout each stage.

You can also receive Orbytes by completing each of the stages’ 3 challenges. These challenges may be things like completing the stage in a certain number of moves or completing the stage without taking any damage, which adds a layer of challenge to the game. Completing each challenge requires you to focus on how best to strategically complete each level.

I can honestly tell you that these challenges are by no means easy. I can complete a majority of them, but some of them are incredibly difficult. Interestingly enough though, unlike most puzzle games, Keen: One Girl Army has boss fights, which require you to attack the boss a certain number of times. Usually, this involves waves of other enemies as well.

The boss fights are a fun, yet difficult addition. They make you pay attention to how you move, what you do, and where you stand. There are plenty of interesting mechanics that you uncover as you play, but I do have a few complaints. There are some grammatical errors in the text, which isn’t uncommon of course, but it is frequent enough to be obvious.

My other complaint is that during boss battles because you can’t recover health aside from certain maneuvers, it is very difficult to recover if you make a mistake. I like a challenge, but I also like the ability to compensate for mistakes and either have an undo button or a way to recover.

Keen: One Girl Army has a lot of content and I like the premise of it. It just feels like it could be more and could be polished with a few extra quality of life improvements. It also doesn’t help that there is no mouse control on PC and the options are very limited. In 2020, there should be resolution and windowed mode options in PC games.

However, if you like sliding puzzles and strategic action-puzzle elements, then I think Keen: One Girl Army is a very worthy addition to any puzzle lover’s library. Is it perfect? No. Is it fun? Without a doubt, yes it is. I think it might be a bit better on console, but I can’t quite tell for certain.

A PC Review copy of Keen: One Girl Army was provided by Phoenixx Inc for this review

Phenixx Gaming is everywhere you are. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram.

Also, if you’d like to join the Phenixx Gaming team, check out our recruitment article for details on working with us.

Phenixx Gaming is proud to be a Humble Partner! Purchases made through our affiliate links support our writers and charity!

Keen: One Girl Army

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• Fun Puzzle Gameplay
• Complex Boss Battles
• Lots of Challenges and Side Content

Cons

• No Control Remapping
• Hard to Recover From Mistakes