Aarik and The Ruined Kingdom Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Aarik and The Ruined Kingdom wraps up the mystery of a kingdom fallen into ruin in an isometric, perspective-shifting puzzle game. Taking control of Aarik, you have to find a path through the mystery which has seen your father, the King, become bedbound and your mother, the Queen, disappear on her own quest to save the kingdom.

The debut title from Shatterproof Games, Aarik and The Ruined Kingdom uses a number of different mechanisms for its puzzles, including perspective shifting, time manipulation, and object control, allowing for the levels to offer different challenges, though none of them are too difficult to solve. That level simplicity feeds into what appears to be Shatterproof’s aim of creating a relaxing and cosy puzzle game that will entertain rather than tax your brain too much. That isn’t to say there aren’t some headscratchers thrown in, but you should be able to complete the game within a few hours.

The game will draw comparisons to others that have populated the genre, most notably the Monument Valley games, but Aarik and The Ruined Kingdom has a whimsical charm of its own and moments of comedy interspersed throughout. While there is not much dialogue in the game, when it is present it nicely moves the story along and helps build the world just enough to allow you to fill in some of the blanks, but never all of them.

Aarik’s powers come from gems that are embedded in his father’s crown. None of the gems are present at the start of the game, and it is only through going through the levels that each gem is found, unlocking a new power for Aarik to use. The perspective shifting is there from the start. With this you change the angle from which you view the puzzle, and doing so can create paths that Aarik can walk along, or find objects that were previously hidden from view, like the hidden crowns dotted in every level. The first gem you get then allows Aarik to move objects via telekinesis to move objects that help create or open paths up. That is soon