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Please support this independent developer!
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Chains
Game Name: Chains
Developers: 2dengine.com
Price: £7
Release Date: Out Now!
Review by Andy Yates
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 It's not too often that you come across a truly interesting puzzle game. Most of what you've got out there are remakes, rehashes and almost complete clones of existing and established puzzle mechanics.
In Chains we do however have something a bit special. Let's start with the game mechanic:
The idea is that you need to link 3 or more balls of the same colour together creating, unsurprisingly, a chain. Of course the balls have to be close enough to each other to be able to do this. By creating a chain you cause the linked balls to disappear, making room for any balls above to fall into the newly available space.
I did have a tiny issue with linking the balls with the mouse. Early on when I was trying to cancel the current chain I found it tricky to do so without completing it. It took me a little while to get used to right clicking to cancel the current chain quickly, rather than getting frustrated and retracing the chain back to the start!
There are 20 levels that I have to say are all interestingly unique! I was impressed with the diversity of each level, even though the same game mechanic was used in levels where careful thinking was required as well as the ones that were against the clock! I especially enjoyed the level "The Stream" where the balls fall through a shaft which they can get jammed in easily and the idea is to prevent any blockages so that the flow continues. In contrast the level "Scale" involves removing the right number of balls either side of a scale to get perfect balance which is made difficult by the different sizes and weights of the balls.
 The final part of the gameplay to mention is the non-assigned balls. Some levels start off with balls that have no colour to start with. You can assign a colour (which is pre-picked for you) to any of these. Sometimes you need to think well ahead when doing this otherwise you can make things very difficult later on!
It would have been nice to have seen more levels along the same theme later on, such as another version of "The Stream" with different choke points or a 3 way scale. 20 levels wasn't exactly short and there's plenty of replay value because each level is so different, but I wouldn't have begrudged the re-use of some of the ideas to lengthen it a bit. Perhaps a level where gravity was reversed would have been fun!
There is a slight competitive element to the game: If you're a multi-person household or, even better, a multi-puzzle-loving-person household(!) then you can sign in under a different profile and see who's managed to achieve the best playing times, longest chains, most cleared and even most optimal completion. What would have been super would have been some kind of online play where you both played the same level but if one of the players was doing especially well they could send some extra balls over to the other player to make it more difficult.
Achieving uniqueness in a puzzle game is all about having a style and Chains certainly has a striking minimalist feel to it. The backgrounds are bold stylised designs and the actual level objects consist of contrasting silhouettes.
 The music is also quite minimalist but I specifically remember hearing at least the menu theme in another independent title recently. It's hard to put that kind of thing aside if music is such a big deal for you (which it is for me.) Just to be clear, I'm not saying it doesn't fit the game and I'm not sure who used it first but somehow I feel wrong about it being used in two games.
Aside from this I very much enjoyed playing Chains. There's plenty of replayability here and if you play against others an urge to keep improving your scores. If you're after a few hours challenge and want something truly interesting and challenging then this is a sure bet!
Score: 76 out of 100
Final Words: This will have you Chained to your computer for hours! (Sorry couldn't resist!)
Click here to visit the Chains webpage and download the free demo!
Or Click here to read the other reviews on the site
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