har.mo.ny 2 Review

The App Store and Google Play have plenty of puzzle games guaranteed to make players' brains liquify and pour out their ears, but there's something to be said for puzzle games that take things slow and easy. "Slow and easy" perfectly describes har.mo.ny 2, a tile-matching game from BorderLeap that emphasizes gentle colors, calming music, and puzzle action that's a bit simple and repetitive by design.

Each game board in har.mo.ny 2 is marked with mixed-up colored squares, most of which have one or more dots on them. The squares are all part of a gradient that needs to be put back in order. The dots on the squares indicate how many times the piece can be moved. Pieces can be swapped vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally. Using a little foresight and color recognition, players restore the gradient. When everything is back in place, and when the dots on the squares have been wiped clean (they're eliminated once the piece moves the requisite number of times), the level is done.

On its own, har.mo.ny 2's gameplay isn't overly-challenging, though things do get a little stickier as the levels advance and the squares get smaller and more numerous. However, har.mo.ny 2 is meant to be experienced and enjoyed as a package. Each gradient is composed of soothing colors, and gentle background music binds the player to the task at hand. har.mo.ny 2 is less like a game and more like a meditation exercise.

That said, har.mo.ny 2 has a couple of irritating traits that could stand to be ironed out. While players can cycle through several level packs (each of which is named for the color scheme it utilizes), they can't skip over a particular puzzle if they get bored or stuck. And, as is the case with its predecessor, the puzzles begin to blend together after a time.

Still, har.mo.ny 2 is full of the refreshing, relaxing goodness that made the first game so popular. Its puzzles probably won't bend anyone's mind (though the later puzzles aren't necessarily pushovers, either), but that's certainly not what the title intends to do.