Tin Hearts Review (PC)

The Jack-in-the-Box might be an old-fashioned toy for most of us but its mechanics were, at one time, so wondrous that it was one of the popular gifts for children. Well, I think the character I’m playing as has received a cursed one because it’s very focused on eating all the toy soldiers that move past it.

Is he simply unhappy? Can I place something on the lid to stop that from happening? No. I rewind time to get back all the toy soldiers I lost to this weird toy and look for clues in the environment while pausing all toy soldier movement. It takes a while but I finally found a few triangles that will help me solve this puzzle. They were placed somewhere out of the way and I really had to scour the room my character’s spirit is in to get them.

Now it’s a relatively simple matter of choosing a path for the toy soldier to take to the exit. Placing everything just right takes a bit of time but the solution is clear in my mind, so I fiddle until I get everything just right. That weird Jacl-in-the-Box cannot hurt me now. And I get to see one gameplay element in action for the first time, getting a clear idea of how to employ it in future levels.

Tin Hearts is developed by Rogue Sun and published by Wired Productions. I played on the PC via Steam. The game is also offered on the Nintendo Switch, the Xbox Series X and S, the PlayStation 5, and older platforms from Microsoft and Sony. A virtual reality version is also available. The title combines physics-driven puzzles with time-based mechanics.

+4more

The game is set during the Victorian era and its main characters are tin soldiers. They only know to march and need a guiding hand to get to their exit point for each level. That hand is spiritual in nature and belongs to Albert J. Butterworth. He is described as a genius who loves to invent new kinds of mechanisms and toys and has a traditional outlook on life.

Some of the levels deliver bits of narrative when players reach certain moments, showing the inventor interacting with his daughter and revealing letters he exchanges with other parties. Players can get more clues about the narrative by paying attention to the world. But what kept me engaged wasn’t the narrative or character.

Tin Hearts has good puzzles and understands how to engage the player. The mechanics aren’t complicated and the option to mess with time is very good. The toy soldiers will get out of their box and start marching. When they meet an obstacle they will either be deflected on a new path or sent back to where they can from. If they fall off a ledge they shatter and no one wants to see that.

Players will start off by placing shapes on puzzle pieces to guide them around. The game soon adds triangle pieces that can be placed anywhere, drums that allow the soldiers to jump, devices that give them balloons to cross chasms, trains that can be guided around tracks, and more.

Gamers have to create a path between the soldier box and the exit, create a plan to get them there, and then manipulate the room using all their tools to execute it without a hitch. At any point, there’s an option to stop time and get a clear idea of the path the toys are moving on. If accidents happen, it’s easy to hit rewind. Once a solution is implemented, a fast-forward option saves some time.

Play Video

For some rooms, the path that needs to be created is obvious from the start. Others are more obscure. Sometimes it’s important to reuse elements, while other times some clever use of moving parts means that some pieces can be safely ignored.

There are more than 50 levels in Tin Hearts and all puzzle fans will be happy with their quality. The game gently introduces new ideas and mechanics, gives players the time to experiment with them, and then adds to the complexity to increase the challenge level.

There are also some baffling choices. Why does the player have to move through the room and push a handle to advance to the next mission? There’s nothing gained by doing this other than tedium. The game should make it clearer what elements of a room can be interacted with (hints help but more is needed). Even with time fast forwarding the little soldiers take a lot of dead time to get to the exit.

These are fairly minor issues. The game delivers solid brain teasers and rarely becomes frustrating. I didn’t find the story that important. Play it for the puzzle design and to discover the various invention schematics spread around the levels.

Tin Hearts has a presentation steeped in Victorian visual motifs. All the toys that affect gameplay directly are detailed and beautiful in an old-fashioned way, although the rooms where puzzles are set could use more personality. The game’s user interface does a good job of revealing how player actions affect the toy soldiers, eliminating much of the potential frustration associated with finding a solution.

The major story beats are fully voiced and the actors try to infuse relatively dull lines with feeling and emotional power. The sound effects do not stand out while the soundtrack remains mostly in the background, with a vaguely classical approach that does not impress or annoy.

+4more

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion