Heartbeats Review

Developer: Esben Kjaer Ravn
Price: FREE ($0.99 to unlock full game)
Version Reviewed: 2.2
App Reviewed on: iPhone 5

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Overall Rating:

Heartbeats is a stylish game. It’s a puzzle game, but one with few clues as to what’s expected of you. Instead, you need to figure out what to do by piecing together what little information is provided. At times it feels a little like trial and error, but for the most partHeartbeats is a well made puzzler that entices you into thinking about things differently.

For free, you’re given three levels. These provide a good basis to what to expect for the rest. While I’ll dodge obvious spoilers, they work well in getting you to think laterally and a little outside of the box to decipher. A mixture of riddles and visual clues, it’s fun to try to figure out what’s next. Whether you’re piecing together a key from letters or figuring out what a riddle is asking you to do, it’s interesting stuff. In each case, the game controls well, enticing you into exploring what can be accomplished through experimentation. Remember that when you're playing - it really is important!

Once you wrap up those three levels, you’re asked to pay $0.99 to unlock the other seven. Ten isn’t a huge number, overall, but they’re all decent quality and intriguing to complete.

Perhaps more importantly, each puzzle pieces together to form a kind of short story and it’s an interesting way of doing things, bordering on the artistic. It certainly looks quite stylish throughout. Music is provided through some appropriately themed Spotify playlists that tie neatly into what unfolds. It's a one-shot kind of game with little reason to replay, but it's a memorable experience.

You’ll end up wishing for more content from Heartbeats, but it’s hard to complain too much when the quality level is pretty high. A work of indie art, it’s a cut above the rest of the App Store - reminding us just how creative gaming can be when the right minds get to work.