Amphora

A beautiful game telling a cute love story. Amphora feels like it was made by a shadow artist dipping their toes into game design and it shows. The loose controls and lack of level selection extenuate the finnicky nature of the puzzles in this engine. I would love to see the art team work with a more experienced developer on a different title.

You're paying for the stunning visuals, not for the gameplay.

If you like vibrant colours then maybe you'd think this game is worth the price. It isn't.

The story, if there is one, is difficult to piece together. Now don't judge me too harshly - I'm a guy and we all know guys have trouble if things aren't spelled out clearly for them. It could be that guys are not the target audience, or it could be the puzzles are just standalone imagery, and some poor sap decided there was a story there.

Given that it is a pretty tame puzzle game and the tutorial is entirely minimalist or absent, even if you get stuck for a while, the play time to finish the game is not long at all.

Also bear in mind it is not the sort of game you are going to come back to and play again.

It sounds like I set my review up for a negative, but I gave it a positive. Why?

I actually had a lot of fun messing with the core gameplay elements. Grabbing people and making them epileptic. Drawing the most massive chain to fill the screen with. Completing puzzles in the totally wrong way. Throwing calabash (bombs) at people's heads. Throwing people. Throwing cauldrons, rabbits, carts and horses. Just being a total delinquent.

For that refreshing silliness, it is worth every cent.