SAND - A Leo Parker Adventure

The puzzles were challenging but not impossible. After playing the demo, I fell in love with the art style and puzzles. I happily paid $1.99 for the full version. I only "simplified" 2 puzzles, but that was because visually they were hard to distinguish (the beetles puzzle + the numbers square puzzle). Overall, a fun puzzle game (with actually challenging puzzles) with an interesting premise (though the ending felt rushed). The most difficult part of the game was trying to find the hidden objects in random rooms! One of the rings you needed in a puzzle was in a corridor hidden by complete shadows! And a flask you needed to clean a mirror was placed amongst an already completed puzzle. It was unnecessarily frustrating to look up a tutorial of the game because I literally couldn't find what I needed to progress. The hints were just "you need to find the object"- boy, I know, I do! Where IS the object, hint? If the company releases another puzzle game (a sequel could be fun with the open ending), I would happily play it. Just made the hidden objects easier to find!

**Updated—The developer replied to this review, which is kind of incredible. Apparently the two puzzle snags I mention in my original review aren’t snags, but intentional and don’t affect the game. So I gave another star, but they still seem distracting and odd imo. I would certainly try another of this developer’s games. Original review—I paid for the game, and having finished think it mostly delivers on the price. I enjoyed the style and tone of the story and game. The graphic novel-type art was great, the sound/music were good, and there were words when I tapped on almost everything, which seems like such an easy thing but so many games slack there. The puzzles were standard but solid; a little more challenge would have been nice but I’ve played a lot of these sorts of games. One problem is that you can advance without solving at least one puzzle (the stone rings), which begs the question of why it’s there. You can’t go back so presumably you miss part of the story, which in a short game is irksome. In the beginning there is also a window that is too high so the game says you’ll have to check it out from the other side—that either doesn’t or doesn’t have to happen because I didn’t find a way to investigate before the chapter ended. Those seem like two surprising mistakes in what is otherwise a pretty polished game imo.

So i like a lot about this game. Beautiful design/ artwork, generally easy to use, great puzzles. I wound up breaking out algebra skills I haven’t used in 30 years for the coin puzzle, then ditched the approach and went with a hunch which proved correct. Really makes me think, which I like in a game. My issue is that when you get to the wheel puzzle in the labyrinth (the one where you start with a cyan pie piece across the disks), I get stuck. I can place the sections from the wall diagram where they belong, but there’s no indication as to where the others should go. After trying a few logical possibilities, I realized either I was missing a piece of information or it was one I would have to brute force, which I dislike intensely. I looked up wikis and walkthroughs, but the ones I found stop at the end of the free section. There’s no option to get an easier puzzle here, or anything about where to look for more info. Also can’t find a way to message the creator for info… so, review it is. Again— good game. Just frustrating when you can’t find out how to work around a puzzle.