Happy new year! For the first game of 2015, I decided to go with something a little lighter on the interactive side to help with the new years hangover many of you may or may not have.
Developer/Publisher: Black Pants Studios
Release Date: December 12th, 2014 (PC)
Where to buy: http://store.steampowered.com/app/277680/
If you are a fan of puzzle games, you no doubt have come to love the mobile devices, as the puzzle games are on full effect on that platform. There have been many successful franchises started just through mobile gaming, with many receiving PC or even game console ports today. First on my list is a little title called About Love, Hate, and the other ones. Originally being a mobile game, does it transfer well over to the computer? About as well as you can expect on this one folks.
About Love, Hate, and the other ones is straightforward a puzzle game. If you are not a fan of these type of games, stop reading and find another review. You will not find advanced game play to challenge your platforming skills, or anything of the sort. If you are looking for a game that you can test your brain with however, this may be a title worth looking at.
The story, or what you would call the story in this game, is very basic. You have to get your two playable characters Love and Hate back home. You will receive other little bits of information while playing, but nothing substantial. The story takes a back seat to the gameplay here. While I know that mobile games have very little in the way of a story, I would of liked to see a little more to get me involved a little bit. Make me feel for the characters. Sadly, this opportunity was missed.
As far as gameplay works, you control Love and Hate with your mouse. You click on one of the characters to select which one you move, then you use either Hate to push enemies/obstacles away from you, while using Love to have them come towards you. You will use this mechanic to navigate nearly 80 levels of progressively more difficult stages to reach the red button, that takes you to the next level. There are no thrills here. Simple point to point gameplay, with the challenge coming from how to position things on the map to reach your goal.
Sadly, I had a lot of issues with the port. When I first booted the game up it ran fine. However, after exiting and restarting the game, I experienced crashes and complete freezes at some points. It actually got so bad at one point I completely reinstalled windows and every driver I had on my PC, making sure it was not on my end before writing this review. While I do not experience freezing nearly as much as before, I still do encounter crashing every 30 or so levels. This may not happen to anyone else however, as I could not find any problem like mine around.
During the course of the game, you will be rewarded for continuing the puzzles in the forms of new areas.
I enjoy About Love, Hate, and the other ones. I personally enjoy puzzle games, and this was a nice distraction from the gun heavy first person shooters and survival games I am more accustomed to today. That being said, if you are not a fan of puzzle games I can safely say you will not enjoy this one as much as I did, however. This game is purely based on your tastes. If you like brain scratchers, I recommend you give this one a shot. At $5.25 USD at the time of this review, it hits the right cash point to make the weak story and simple gameplay something I can overlook in the sake of value, as you do get your moneys worth.
Recommended for Puzzle game fans.
