Puzzles are something that humanity has developed since civilization itself. It is a way of training the mind and helping people think of brand-new ways to look at the world. Plus, puzzle games often tended to be a lot safer for individuals compared to some of the problems that existed in their life that might prove to be deadly. As human civilization improved, so have our puzzles and puzzle games.

Most puzzle video games today, such as Superliminal and Portal, consist of rather mind-bending solutions to progress through various stages. While these may prove effective at training people to solve problems in unorthodox ways, there are very few games that have simple puzzles that can be accessible to people of all ages and states of mind. Enter Tin Hearts!

Tin Hearts is a puzzle game developed by Rogue Sun (an indie UK studio) and published by Wired Productions. Rogue Sun consists of some developers that helped to create Fable, which is evident from the game’s story. According to the description of the game, Tin Hearts allows you to “guide a troop of mischievous tin soldiers through a magical toy-filled world using a variety of whimsical and inventive contraptions to bounce, shoot and glide them to their goal. March through 40+ levels of time-bending, soldier-routing riddles, forge new paths for your toys to follow, and solve increasingly elaborate puzzles to unravel the emotional, thought-provoking story of Albert J. Butterworth, a genius inventor of Victorian times.”

Tim Hearts truly captures the essence of being young. I felt like I was a child playing with tin soldiers that were alive in my imagination. The developers pull this off with a wonderful art style paired with a brilliant soundtrack and easy-to-learn controls. The art style somewhat reminded me of old Christmas movies that would play on tv or that my parents would pop into the VHS player.

The music is done masterfully by Matthew Castney, a composer who has worked on projects such as Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Bridgerton, Heroine’s Quest: The Herald of Ragnarok, and much more. These two elements gave me a real sense of childhood joy that comes from spending Christmas with my family, even though Tin Hearts isn’t a Christmas game.

The controls (while easy to learn) caused a bit of a problem for me at the beginning. This was due to the fact that the mouse & keyboard seemed to have a few issues on certain levels, primarily one that caused me to be fighting the camera for control of where I wanted to be looking or what I wanted to be doing. After experiencing this problem, I switched over to using a controller and things seemed to go much better.

However, I did have to relearn the controls since I didn’t know what each button on the controller did in terms of the game controls. While this threw a wrench into how quickly I solved the level, I was able to make up the time later down the line. I am not exactly sure what it is that made the camera keep snapping back to a certain part of the level though. I could never find an option in the menu to explain what it might’ve been.

Beyond the game, I do have to mention that the developers made a prequel story to Tin Hearts called The Little Soldier Who Dared. While the story is nice and gives a good insight into Tin Hearts’ storyline, I especially enjoyed it because they were able to get Stephen Fry to narrate it. It is about twenty-six minutes, which is a tad bit long, but could serve as a wonderful bedtime story to those young in age and at heart.

If you have the time, I would definitely recommend listening to this story! Overall, Tin Hearts is a good game that works as a great problem-solving game for those who are just getting into puzzles and for those who are looking for a more relaxed experience.

If you have any other puzzle games that you find relaxing, please put them in the comments below. If you would like to read about other puzzle games, consider checking out Alexx Aplin’s article on Chessarama here.

A PC Review Copy of Tin Hearts was provided by Wired Productions for this review.

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Tin Hearts

29.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Good Story
• Fun Puzzles
• Great Soundtrack

Cons

• Mouse & Keyboard Control Oddities