I'm one of those guys that plays games looking depth... real depth. I know I'm in the minority here, but things that are truly novel just speak to my soul. Because of that, I tend to drift from game to game, playing everything in my library at least once or twice, but hardly ever come back to them once I "get it".

Auro is not one of those drift-able games! I originally bought it on Android about a year ago, and have sunk hours and hours into it. This game offers true strategy, not the feigned depth of most strategy games out there. Most strategy games add tons and tons of complexity to their rule-set to keep the player from ever mastering the them. Auro keeps it super simple and elegant. After a hardcore year of trying to "get it" I keep being delighted with the emergence of strategies discovered through gameplay!

Seriously, out of every game I've ever owned, Auro is the game that has kept my adult brain entertained the longest.

Dive in, bump some foes, give it a solid chance. You'll be glad you dropped a few bucks on a game that rivals the simplicity and elegance of the greats like Chess or Go. A modern take on a true evergreen game.

I started playing the mobile version of Auro during beta almost four years ago and am really excited to finally have it on my PC as well. After all this time and thousands upon thousands of matches, I'm still playing it almost every day. At this point I can safely say that this is one of the BEST VIDEO GAMES EVER.

While it may seem simple and like a typical "mobile game" at first sight, there is a LOT more to it. The emergent depth this game unfolds over time is quite incredible and puts at least 90% of all PC and console game releases to shame. Every piece, every single rule, in the game has been balanced and honed for years to make for one of the best examples we have of a well-designed gameplay system. Rest assured that you have never played a "dungeon crawler" like this before.

The laser-sharp focus on the core mechanism of "bumping" makes every monster and spell in the game work together beautifully. On top of that though, the "competitive single-player" metagame is nothing less than revolutionary in how it does away with pretty much every typical problem of match-based "highscore" single-player games.

Do yourself a favor and buy this game! And in doing so, tell the world that good gameplay matters more than audiovisual pomp and exploitative business models.

A friend of mine first introduced Auro: A Monster-Bumping Game to me a couple of years ago when it was going through beta for mobile devices. The gameplay immediately became addictive and very challenging. Although the game may appear at first to be a rather simplistic mobile port I’ve long hoped that the game would find a home in the Steam catalog because the game’s depth is exactly what a lot of strategy fans have been seeking for.

The object of the game is to bump monsters off of the map and into the water. Doing so will award you points the amount of which is dependent upon the combo that you are currently riding. You need to score a certain amount of points each level to progress to the next. Players have spells at their disposal to aide their progress and learning the best use of these spells is arguably the most important aspect of the game. This will take time and experience proving that the game is difficult to master.

This may sound contradictory but the game is relatively simple to pick up once you understand the basics. But it’s learning the basics that may cause a relatively steep learning curve for beginners. You’re going to want to watch the how to play video, which is below in the Steam description, to give yourself an understanding of the basics before you begin. Some of you who do watch the video will gain an early appreciation for just how deep the game can become.

From a technical presentation perspective the music and the graphics are more than suitable for the game. Neither are overly flash or fantastic but they achieve what the developers hoped that they would.

The $8.99 asking price is quite reasonable for a strategy game of this nature. It’s only a couple of dollars more than the iOS version of the game and considering that it was fully released last year onto the device you can understand why the game is slightly more expensive. The game on iOS has a 91% metacritic rating which is well deserved. This isn’t just a game that has been ported cheaply onto Steam only to be forgotten about as the devs have given strong support to their game on all platforms. I would only ask that they add Steam achievements and trading cards so that the game can become fully Steamified.

⠀

Update: amazingly, the game was ported to Unity five years after release and many of the issues were fixed. I still encounter the occasional bug, but I have no reservations about recommending it now.

[original review below]

One of my favorite roguelikes ever.

At first the strange mechanics of the game make you feel impotent. Why can't I just attack monsters!? But pushing monsters into water is the name of the game here and it feels way more satisfying than simply hacking at them. Beyond that is the spell system. In each round you get 4 randomly selected spells + a slot for a one-use pickup. If you're clever enough, you can wipe out a whole screen of monsters at once. The way your spells recharge by picking up energy from floor tiles is tactically interesting and not something I've seen elsewhere.

Auro is a real brain burner. If you were to try to play optimally at the higher difficulties, you might think about each turn for a minute or more. Auro is very hard, but it eases you in with a "single player elo" system. You basically move up difficulty levels until you're matched with the right difficulty for you.

The pixel art is beautifully animated and quite large. The music is quirky, but stays with you.

I see a lot of complaints about this being a lazy mobile port, but I don't think that's accurate. The entire game was revamped for the Steam release. Go look up a gameplay video of "Auro iOS." It looks really different from the game today and in fact the iOS version isn't even available for purchase anymore.


The one problem with this game is a handful of bugs. I could see several of them being fixed very easily, but it sounds like the developer no longer has the source code whether due to loss, legal issues, or a falling out among partners.

• Hitting escape twice creates a menu that is impossible to exit
  
• Getting stuck on a lone tile in the water gives you no further options and you're stuck
  
• Rarely, monsters will wind up on the same tile with bizarre consequences

These can be avoided 99.9% of the time if you know about them, which you now do. Even with the problems, Auro is a steal at its current price.

Auro is pure tactics: it's turn-based but the matches are fast, it puts you right into the game immediately - there's no filler content, or filler gameplay - and there's a single-player Elo system that decides the difficulty based on your skill level. I have played hundreds of hours in beta versions for mobile and PC and I am constantly surprised by how close my matches are still. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once it clicks and you're able to play faster, it's really hands down my favorite single-player game.

such a nice suprise!

looks simple and kinda shallow, looking at screens.

also, no full screen (dev should rewrite it from scratch)

still, found an enjoyable strategic puzzle kindly asking to be played.

done that. i'll do it again.

clever devs made me wishlist their new one on the fly!

Auro is a really deep, yet easy to learn game. There is a lot of strategy embedded into a very small number of tools, and the amount of polish that's gone into the game's design is clear when playing.

This is the game that inspired me to make my own games. Incredibly elegant, fun, and strategically interesting for an extremely long time. One of the best games available period.

I really love this game ok. To me it's a shining example of what strategy games can be. It's not just about honing a known strategy or puzzling through super specific situations. It's about the discovery of entirely new types of opportunities that can be creatively remixed and combined with each other in a variety of situations. After more than 1200 matches I'm still being genuinely surprised and delighted by new tactics I've never considered before.

I should mention that It does have a few bugs and software issues right now, but nothing that can't be looked past in my opinion.

It's a top tier strategy game. I highly recommend it.