Tin Hearts is a Lemmings-inspired narrative puzzle game that has you trying to guide little toy soldiers to the end door without directly controlling them.
In this game, you are a spirit looking to guide little toy soldiers around a room that ends at a little door in the wall. These toy soldiers look like little wind-up toys and they march forward until they hit something to either direct them or bounce them to another path. There are tons of different things in each room that they can interact with, but figuring out how to get them to the end is often really tricky.
In Tin Hearts, you seem to be the father of a young girl who had a lovely life. You and everyone in your life seems to have died, though, leaving you as a spirit who is able to see moments of your past in ghost form. While you can’t do much in this past time, you’re able to interact with various objects in the room.
You are able to possess a number of items, moving and twisting them once you have control, using them to create a path for the toy soldiers. Triangular blocks can be used to bounce toy soldiers in the right direction or become a ramp for them to walk up. Drums can be adjusted so that the toys bump into them and shift directions and cannons can be set up to knock down objects. Looking around each room, there is a lot to see, inspect, and ensure you are using. Some of the blocks have to be placed on specific spots in specific ways. Others are more freeform and can be placed everywhere.
When you are moving items around in Tin Hearts, you are also able to stop and start time. When time is paused, you can actually see little ghost versions of the soldiers showing where they will go. As you drag items into place, you can see the ghosts change their routes. Once you hit play, they will follow this route. It’s great for planning things out and figuring out what to do next! You can also fast forward the toy soldiers, too, as well as put them all back in the box they came out of in case a few of them have fallen apart from a fall or other poor choice of direction you made.
Often, in the middle of the level, you will be given bits of story about your past. This is done in a cinematic way, showcasing beautiful scenes where you can still see your soldiers marching on. They go to a safe place as you do this (almost like a checkpoint), circling an area until you interact with them again. These little bite-sized stories felt perfect – a great break from the challenging puzzles – and they added a layer of depth into who you were and what you were doing. The puzzles themselves grew as you moved from room to room, clearly showcasing various moments in this family’s life. You get to see the mother teaching the daughter how to play the harp, the daughter’s birthday party, when the father started working more in his workshop – all of these moments are showcased through moving soldiers about.
In the preview of Tin Hearts that I got to play, there was one particularly interesting level where one of the toy soldiers had their winder pulled out of their back, becoming a free-roaming soldier that you could control. This made the game more like a puzzle platformer where you were a tiny soldier knocking down items to create a path for the toy soldiers that were stuck moving straight until they hit something. This felt really interesting, and I started looking at future puzzles wondering if I would get to be the soldier again! The puzzles themselves grew in size and complexity, soon having you use and control electricity. The memories that are drip-fed to you here and there give a lot of depth to the game, and I was genuinely invested in these toys and what happened to my family.
Tin Hearts is currently in development, but in the meantime, you can add it to your Steam Wishlist.
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Been playing this in VR for some time now, nice to see a full version is coming out at last.
It makes a nice change from killing people in different and more bloody ways. Looking forward to getting my hands on it.