Review code provided by the publisher
Everyone loves a game with a great story, unique characters, and awesome missions. But every now and again, it’s nice to sit back, relax, and enjoy the scenery. Tiny Lands is a new take on the “find the difference” type of puzzle with its own flair. It’s a simple game at first glance but you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.
Gameplay
Mechanics wise, the game is very easy and simple. You use your mouse cursor to click around little scenes as you try to uncover all 5 differences scattered through each level. The differences can vary from things being in different places, different sizes, different colors, and more.
Besides the cursor, you’ll use the WASD keys to pan around and zoom in to the scene that you’re investigating. While I enjoy the controls, I personally would’ve liked for all of these actions to be baked directly into the mouse and cursor somehow. It would’ve made it even more simple and streamlined into a one-handed approach.
The levels each carry their own bit of character and are part of 5 distinctly themed clusters. There are 50 levels in all and each one does a great job of both looking and feeling atmospherically different from the one you last played. Finding the differences in some of these levels feels almost impossible at times as it can be the very slightest difference. Most are glaring but on the levels I couldn’t finish, I always felt like it got the better of me.
Making mistakes in puzzles doesn’t actually have consequences. You may hear a sound when you click on wrong things but that’s as far as it goes. Even though there aren’t penalties, I never wanted to hear that sound because that meant that I wasn’t as close to a 5/5 as I thought. It’s fun to go at your own pace and not having to worry about a “Game Over” screen every step of the way.
Visuals
This is an extraordinarily beautiful game to look at. Even though it’s just polygons, the developers at Hyper Three Studio did a fantastic job of making these levels feel alive. Colors are vibrant, lighting is perfect, and the different ways that the differences are presented can be fun and difficult at times. I really felt peaceful just looking at each level and learning the story that it was telling.
Audio
Going back to that peaceful feeling, the music does a wonderful job at relieving stress. It’s that type of meditation music that they play at spas. Very spiritual. It too helps illustrate the stories going on and makes you feel at home. It’s furthered by the normal sounds going on through the scenes such as water, birds, and wind. I would not mind buying a copy of this soundtrack for myself.
Replayability
Tiny Lands offers some replayability but you could finish the puzzles completely in a few playthroughs. That’s not to say that even after beating it, that it’s not fun to pick up whilst watching Youtube or binge-watching a tv series. I loved not being too tied to the game and just having it run so that I could come back to it whenever I felt like it.
What Could Have Been Better
I’d say that the controls could’ve been better. Besides that, the only other thing that had a red-flag during my playthroughs was the precision of the cursor. At times, it wouldn’t properly accept the fact that I was clicking on one of the differences unless I moved the camera. It was annoying when it would happen, especially since there’s an achievement for not making mistakes.
Verdict
Tiny Lands is the perfect game to pick up every now and then to not only get the mind moving but to relax you at the same time. For the modest asking price and the serene experience, I can’t really think of another game with such offerings. Especially given the craziness that we’re living in, it’s nice to have games like this to rescue us. I think everyone needs to give this game a try no matter which platform you choose.
