The free game is easy to pick up and play, and it holds thousands of colorful puzzles to solve. AuroraBound offers enough twists in gameplay to keep it challenging, and overall it's a cool puzzle game to spend a little down time with.
What AuroraBound is all about
AuroraBound lacks a proper main menu but offers navigation buttons at the top of the display to access the game's settings and help section. The game first launches to a tutorial puzzle and from that point forward, it opens up to the last point in the game you were working on. The layout offers a simple design to allow you to concentrate on the puzzles without having to deal with pesky menus.
AuroraBound has more than 1,000 puzzles that are grouped into worlds. Each world menu contains multiple puzzles to solve and as you solve them, puzzle pieces appear on the menu. These pieces are used to complete the final puzzle for that world, allowing you to advance to the next world of puzzles.
The game concept behind AuroraBound has a series of tiles that contain multiple colored patterns. It is your job to place these tiles on a grid so the sides of each tile match up with its neighboring tiles. To add to the difficulty of each puzzle, some tiles can only be rotated in place while others cannot be rotated, and others are anchored in place.
Tile movement is simple with tap or drag mechanics. You can rotate the qualifying tiles by tapping them. Should you need help in solving a puzzle, hints are available to point you in the right direction. AuroraBound starts you out with eight hints, with additional hints available through in-app purchase.
There are no time limits on solving a puzzle or scores to keep track of. You can even skip around the puzzle within each world, tackling them at your discretion. Again, as you complete the puzzles in a world the menu becomes populated with puzzle pieces. To advance to the next world of puzzles, you must solve the menu puzzle by matching up the sides of the tiles. It's a neat twist on gameplay, and I like the additional gaming challenge.
Overall impression of AuroraBound
AuroraBound passes the eye test with many colorful puzzles to solve. The game's minimalist design delivers you to gameplay quicker, and it is an easy Windows 10 Mobile game to pick up and play. The puzzles, on the other hand, start out easy but become more difficult as you advance through the worlds.
I like the casual pace of AuroraBound. It allows you to not only concentrate on the tile designs but also evaluate how each tile impacts the other. A game clock would increase the game's difficulty but as is, AuroraBound offers a relaxing way to exercise your brain.
My only complaint, and it is minor, is that the game needs some direction early on when you finish a world of puzzles. When I first completed all the puzzles in World One, it did not dawn on me to solve the final puzzle, and I felt disappointed that the game only had four levels. A simple message would do the trick, such as "Now solve this final puzzle to advance."
All in all, AuroraBound offers an enjoyable and entertaining gaming experience. It's a good puzzle option that should appeal to gamers of all ages.
