Ever Forward is beautiful puzzle game with an emotional story. Depending on the way your brain is wired, it will either be pretty easy for you or quite hard. It was the latter for me, but I got there......finally!
The bones of the story is that the mother is a very busy scientist and has little time for her 12 yr old daughter. Government officials have stated that it is too unsafe to go outside, so you're stuck home all the time. [A reason was never given for this]
You start designing your own security bot, but your mother isn't interested in that either. The story is enacted by short cut scenes between each puzzle and are well done.
Graphics are lovely. The natural world is full of gentle pastel colours whilst the imaginary world of Maya is very futuristic and dark in design. The soundtrack is full of mellow synthesizer sounds and the sound effects of the security bots are great!
Game play involves getting a box to a red column of light. You need stealth to get past the security bots and have to work out how to distract them in multiple ways. As the game progresses, you are able to teleport and use gravity for your purposes.
To solve the puzzles requires logic reasoning, dexterity and speed to get to something before it moves. In some cases, it requires precise throwing of the box, which can be rage inducing near a bot! Be prepared to die multiple times.
Gravity was introduced towards the end of the game and I found it incredibly frustrating to use. You have to wait for the right strength of wind to move and if you do it wrong multiple times, it gets old very quickly. The timed aspect of it makes it difficult for slowpokes like me!
The Gravity aspect was my only criticism with the lack of English subtitles for the final scene with her mother. I didn't know what was said in Chinese. The end of the story did leave me scratching my head, so it is really left up to your own interpretation. Spoiler alert: There is also a secret ending after the credits
Puzzle lovers will definitely enjoy this. Buy on sale. 8/10

Ever Forward has a surreal aesthetic to it with an intriguing story arc. The mellow synth soundtrack and wonderful use of color palettes made this puzzle platformer easy on the eyes and ears. Unfortunately, that's where I stop giving glowing praise for this game. The puzzle mechanic developed within this title is rather frustrating most of the time. You're required to carry blocks to specific end points while traversing various platforms and avoid sentry turrets. It's a scenario that is repeated to a fault. Some solutions felt clever, while others tipped towards vague and tedious. I really wanted to enjoy this more than I did, as I consider myself to be a puzzle enthusiast. I'm sure there will be plenty who will find everything in this title to be just fine, and I get it. I, on the other hand, grew quite tired and agitated when it was all said and done. It's, by all means, very playable. It just didn't win me over when it came to the actual design of the puzzles.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=d3_Eb7lBPhA

Ever Forward is an indie puzzle game where you play as a girl named Maya. The game starts off when you on an island kind of area and you progress through levels by going to some distorted shapes which transports you to another area where the puzzles are. Here they start off simple where you sneak around surveillance without getting caught while having to transport a cube from one place to another. As you progress the difficult ramp up and some are kinda 5head. Between levels there are some cutscenes which begin with your mum and yourself together at home, where the story unfolds from your past. This is spoken in Chinese, which of course are subtitles accompanying it. The story and atmosphere does have this melancholic and nostalgic kind of feeling with some beautiful visuals to give that indie vibe. Overall, it is a pretty good game as i enjoyed the puzzles that within.

Just finished this lovely game, Ever Forward.

1.Visually, I was met with a vibrant and appealing world design. The main character is cute, although I would recommend the devs used a more realistic voice actor for the child. Her excited and general tone always sounded forced, which is unappealing.

2. The story, although I'll admit I have mixed feelings about much it actually will hit home with most people, was interesting enough to allow you to make up your own mind about what was going on. The cut scenes are short and sweet, and even though there isn't much story, I feel it's one of those 'you fill in the blanks' kind of deals.

3. Game play. The characters movements are fluid, and feel natural. Not being able to run when danger is close, while at first felt frustrating, added a real sense of suspense. So I gotta say that this was a nice touch.

4. Some mechanics were not obvious right away, but after a bit of trial and error (and melting my brain) I was able to figure out what to do. There isn't any real hand holding going on in this game, so that adds to the challenge. There is a hint system that does help.

5. The puzzles were good, but not great. Yes, there were some difficult ones in there, and yes they also melted my brain a few times and caused me to walk away and rethink. That's absolutely fine. My only real issue is that I feel there are times when a solution doesn't really present itself too well, perhaps that is my own fault though. One particular puzzle felt like it needed more of a cheesy workaround rather than solving it the intended way. I guess I will have to see how others solved it and rethink my approach.

Conclusion: Overall, Ever Forward was enjoyable and frustrating all at the same time, which is what I would expect from a puzzle game. If you felt it was too easy, call Mensa and book yourself in. If you felt it was too hard, then breathe, walk away, and take a break. Come back with a fresh mind and try again.

Tip: The environment and the way it's designed can hold the clue to solving a puzzle.

I want to iterate that while I recommend this game, it's purely to give some support for the developers since the game has a great foundation. I personally had some issues with the game.

These issues have nothing to do with how hard the puzzles were, as I've finished the game in 2.1 hours. The main points I want to touch up on are the Story, Puzzle Design/Mechanics, and Game Length.

Before I touch upon these things, I do want to say that the game is beautiful. I love the art style.

I will do my best to cover anything I deem a spoiler with spoiler formatting. So if you do not wish to spoil yourself, please do not reveal any of the black spoiler bars.

--- 1 - Story --- 6/10
The story was all-in-all good. It had some ups and downs as well as a climax. The relationship between the mother and daughter is apparent with the neglect (due to work/stress) as well as the love when the mother (essentially) sacrifices herself to save her child. One of the problems that I saw in the story was that there were gaps in the story as not everything is explained very well. I was often led to guess what is occurring and most of my questions were never answered later down the line. Like, what is going on in the world? Why exactly is the mother dying? Is it because of the cold, or a disease, or both? The other problem is that the story itself is fairly generic. This is my own interpretation from what I've seen and heard playing it, so if the developers would like to point out if I'm wrong then I would be grateful. The story is basically this. Girl is neglected due to parents work circumstances. Girl makes a robot to get attention of her mother. Girl leaves to prove herself to her mother. Girl winds up almost dying due to stupidity spurred on by the neglect. Girl gets placed in cryosleep(?) Mother dies and girl wakes up.

--- 2 - Puzzle Design/Mechanics --- 8/10
Puzzles generally consist of getting a cube to the end by getting through obstacles and robots with vision cones. Sometimes there are more robots, cubes, or obstacles. Sometimes there are no robots or obstacles. New mechanics are shown to the player over time in order to keep the puzzles from getting stale. Most of mechanics shown to the player can be influenced by the player. This is important in a puzzle game since players shouldn't need to rely on something out of their control to complete it. Puzzles should be completed with their own ideas and knowledge rather than uncontrollable timed mechanics. I will note that this does not mean timed mechanics can't be used in puzzle games, but they need to be done right in order to ensure that it's more than just waiting for the light to turn green at an intersection (metaphorically speaking). The following bit will touch upon the mechanic that I did not find good. Towards the later levels of the 2nd half of the game you are introduced to a timed gravity change mechanic. The player can not speed these up in any way and must wait for the gravity to change. At first it seems like a neat idea, but as the player figures things out they are left waiting for the gravity to change rather than actually solving the puzzle. I could be wrong, but it never felt as though giving the player a button to forcefully advance the gravity change would affect the game. This of course would only work as long as there was a cooldown to avoid players getting across gaps by abusing this ability. Often I found myself waiting for the gravity to flip, and it just made be a bit annoyed and...well...bored. The puzzles in this game had great foundations, and I definitely believe more can be done with the ideas that the developers came up with.

--- 3 - Length --- 6/10
This is a short and sweet section.
This game is short. I can understand the reasons why it is short, but for a 15$ game it is short at 2-3 hours. Looking at the other reviews I can take that the average completion time is at about 3 hours, if not a little bit higher. There are only about 14-ish puzzles and the story itself is also fairly short.

I personally wish more was done with the game, but it was a good step in the right direction and wish good luck to the developers in their future endeavors.

Charming little puzzle game with simple yet beautiful visuals in an interesting setting. The puzzles start simple and scale up slowly. The latter puzzles had me scratching my head a little with the last couple involving plenty of trial and error to solve them. Overall an enjoyable package that I am happy I got to play.

If you are starved of a neat puzzle game to try out this could be for you. Some may say its a little pricey for the playtime however it seems reasonable to me.

Maya is a little girl who lives alone on a peaceful island far, far out at sea. The waves are calm, stone pillars loom out in the distance like faraway guardians, and a huge tree stands tall and strong with its roots entangling the earth. Maya isn’t completely alone though, Hestia is Maya’s floating companion cube, a quiet friend who is with her always. One day, out on the beach, something strange appears – a familiar building manifests and a puzzle appears, leading to a memory Maya has forgotten. Seek out all of the memory shards to find the truth about the island, and the secret hidden in Maya.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3092383562
2-3+ hours to complete, Ever Forward is an adventure puzzle game that is short and sweet. Beautiful graphics, a great soundtrack, fun puzzles and an interesting storyline. The Island is explorable and has secrets and animals you can pet, and the puzzle domains are interesting enough and can be challenging. If a puzzle is too hard, the key for many lies in the layout and the environment. A mix between fantasy and sci-fi, Ever Forward was super fun to play and I’m glad I took a chance on it!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3092382842

10/10 Related mom.

Jokes aside, it's a beautiful game with an interesting storyline.
With it's bright colors yet dark past, it does make one good game to spend your time on.

First off I want to say I got this game as a bundle with the soundtrack and additional puzzle for $13.50 USD including tax.

So the majority of the puzzles are good... until they start making you wait which only gets worse as the levels progress. There was not too many puzzles and I have yet to try the additional puzzle but it took me less than 3 hours to beat the base game (with a little help from a walk-through) Each level you beat you get an achievement which is named along with what happens in the story. I kind of wish they added new enemies other than just the "Roundy-bots".

The game is beautiful and the story is pretty good. I do wish that they explained what happened with the world, the most you get is "its snowing, or is it?" (which you see in the trailer) and the mom telling the girl not to go outside. I am not sure if it was just me but I had the game audio set to what I believe is Japanese and the Subtitles set to English and toward the end the subtitles stopped so I don't know what they said at the very end.

I do like that there are a few secrets in the game which gives the game a little replay-ability if you didn't already get them.

The soundtrack is great, its not something you start jamming out to during game but it fits the mood of the game very well.

I just can't recommend this game... Its pretty, the soundtrack is wonderful and the beginning to mid level puzzles are fun but the game is just to short and the second half of the game is a lot of waiting which is more frustrating than tough.

Im not sure if you can get a game soundtrack on steam without getting the game but if you can get the soundtrack.

Cool puzzle game! Very challenging, I wasn't able to finish it (yet)...

Beautiful graphics, and so far an interesting story. You get a new glimpse at it for each puzzle you solve.

I wish the bot detection area was clearly visible. So many deaths just while testing how far you can go. Also, in the cutscenes the subtitles aren't timed too well with the speech.

Definitely recommended if you enjoy puzzles and don't mind them being timing-based :)