7/10

Chess meets Hitman GO.

What is it: A chess-inspired pathfinding game. Using chess moves, find your way to the king avoiding all the guards. You always start as a pawn, but by stepping onto special tiles you can turn into other pieces. The king never moves and never attacks, but other enemy pieces will attack you on sight. Other than borrowing chess movements, this is not a true chess game. First of all, the levels are not played on a regular chess board, but on uniquely shaped levels. Unlike chess, pieces have a limited range, so a rook can move on the same row or column, but at most 3 squares. Other non-chess mechanics are portals, moving platforms, patrolling enemies, one-pass tiles, trap tiles, and buttons that change the shape of the level.

You are not required, but are allowed to capture other enemy pieces, and the only measurement of success is how many moves it takes to capture the king. Based on that metric you are awarded up to 3 stars for every level, but other than an achievement for perfecting all the levels, there is no requirement to collect a certain number of stars.

I really enjoyed this. It reminds me a lot of Hitman GO and others like it, with its core idea of finding the right sequence of steps to "kill" a target while avoiding enemies. It looks and behaves great, has good QoL, with only a few things for me to bellyache about.

Overall, a nicely polished gem, strongly recommended for those that like Hitman GO or Chess-inspired puzzles.

How hard is it: Easy to slightly hard if you want to perfect every level.

How long is it: 84 levels split in 7 chapters, plus a short tutorial, for about 3-6 hours. All levels in a chapter can be unlocked (there is a skip level feature), but all of them must be finished to unlock the next chapter.

Level design: Very good. Varied levels, with non-trivial solutions, sometimes with unexpected optimal solutions hidden behind red herrings.

Quality: Good. Good levels, good mechanics, nice graphics, good relaxing music, unlimited undo even after failure, but not after a manual restart, decent achievements, cloud saving, progress reset, plenty of settings, including some accessibility ones. Mouse-only controls, no support for keyboard or controller. Nice animations, but too long and unskippable.

Worth the price: A bit too expensive for the playtime offered.

Most positive aspect for me: Good and varied mechanics.

Most negative aspect for me: Mouse only control.

What would make it better: Keyboard and controller support. Setting for skipping animations. Undo after a manual reset. Faster undo after a failure, don't wait for all the reset animations to finish before allowing me to undo. More achievements for creative ways of solving levels, e.g. capture all pieces in chapter X. Skipping a level should allow unlocking the next chapter.

Also consider:

Hitman GO, pathfinding game inspired by the Hitman games.

Take the King, turn based chess-inspired puzzler where you are the king trying to avoid capture, with plenty of different challenges in every level.

Chessk Knights: Shinobi, chess-inspired puzzler with knights, mostly avoiding capture.

For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow Puzzle Lovers and check out our Steam group.

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[b]7/10[/b] Chess meets Hitman GO. [b]What is it:[/b] A chess-inspired pathfinding game. Using chess moves, find your way to the king avoiding all the guards. You always start as a pawn, but by stepping onto special tiles you can turn into other pieces. The king never moves and never attacks, but other enemy pieces will attack you on sight. Other than borrowing chess movements, this is not a true chess game. First of all, the levels are not played on a regular chess board, but on uniquely shaped levels. Unlike chess, pieces have a limited range, so a rook can move on the same row or column, but at most 3 squares. Other non-chess mechanics are portals, moving platforms, patrolling enemies, one-pass tiles, trap tiles, and buttons that change the shape of the level. You are not required, but are allowed to capture other enemy pieces, and the only measurement of success is how many moves it takes to capture the king. Based on that metric you are awarded up to 3 stars for every level, but other than an achievement for perfecting all the levels, there is no requirement to collect a certain number of stars. I really enjoyed this. It reminds me a lot of Hitman GO and others like it, with its core idea of finding the right sequence of steps to "kill" a target while avoiding enemies. It looks and behaves great, has good QoL, with only a few things for me to bellyache about. Overall, a nicely polished gem, strongly recommended for those that like Hitman GO or Chess-inspired puzzles. [b]How hard is it:[/b] Easy to slightly hard if you want to perfect every level. [b]How long is it:[/b] 84 levels split in 7 chapters, plus a short tutorial, for about 3-6 hours. All levels in a chapter can be unlocked (there is a skip level feature), but all of them must be finished to unlock the next chapter. [b]Level design:[/b] Very good. Varied levels, with non-trivial solutions, sometimes with unexpected optimal solutions hidden behind red herrings. [b]Quality:[/b] Good. Good levels, good mechanics, nice graphics, good relaxing music, unlimited undo even after failure, but not after a manual restart, decent achievements, cloud saving, progress reset, plenty of settings, including some accessibility ones. Mouse-only controls, no support for keyboard or controller. Nice animations, but too long and unskippable. [b]Worth the price:[/b] A bit too expensive for the playtime offered. [b]Most positive aspect for me:[/b] Good and varied mechanics. [b]Most negative aspect for me:[/b] Mouse only control. [b]What would make it better:[/b] Keyboard and controller support. Setting for skipping animations. Undo after a manual reset. Faster undo after a failure, don't wait for all the reset animations to finish before allowing me to undo. More achievements for creative ways of solving levels, e.g. capture all pieces in chapter X. Skipping a level should allow unlocking the next chapter. [b]Also consider:[/b] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/427820/Hitman_GO_Definitive_Edition/?curator_clanid=25928931]Hitman GO[/url], pathfinding game inspired by the Hitman games. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/2479610/Take_the_King/?curator_clanid=25928931]Take the King[/url], turn based chess-inspired puzzler where you are the king trying to avoid capture, with plenty of different challenges in every level. [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1383050/Chess_Knights_Shinobi/?curator_clanid=25928931]Chessk Knights: Shinobi[/url], chess-inspired puzzler with knights, mostly avoiding capture. [quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote] [quote]Follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/]IndieGems[/url] for more reviews like this one.[/quote]