JOIN tiles - Anatolian game to play

In a hurry? You can find a ‘too long didn’t read’ at the bottom of my review.

⇥Scenario⇤

'JOIN tiles - Anatolian game to play' is a puzzle game in which you restore broken plates and are rewarded with a fun fact after completing a plate.
There are currently three categories, each with 20 plates to fix, with a fourth on the way.

⇥Gameplay⇤

Very easy and casual gameplay. You click one of the tiles you can find on the left –no need to keep holding your mouse button down- and drag it to the right side where you find outlines and a faded picture of the plate you have to complete.
Click again, once the piece is at the spot it belongs, to release the piece and make it fall in place. Easy, right?
I’ve also made a small guide of all the plates which you can find over here.

⇥Visuals & Sound ⇤

A simple and plain background that isn't overly distracting, which is nice because it allowed the beautiful art on the plates to shine through even more.
The sound, on the other hand, is a bit disappointing because there is only one –a nice one btw- soundtrack, which quickly becomes repetitive.

⇥Controls⇤

To avoid repeating myself, most of it is already described in my gameplay section and in issues; there's nothing else I can add.

⇥Issues⇤

• The hitboxes; meaning where your piece should click in, are very tight. Even with the best aim I had to try repeatedly to get the piece to click. At that point, it’s not helping that it flicks all the way back to the pile.
• At a few puzzles, the outline started to disappear when I clicked a piece in place, I don’t think it meant to and do believe it’s a glitch as most puzzles did not have that happen.
• One puzzle is missing a piece, I have no idea where it is and the puzzle counted as completed without it.
• There is only one track for the entire game, would love to hear more.
• It takes a huge toll on the video card for some reason, even some of my big games don’t ask that from the card.
• Settings reset after every plate it seems, and I’m not sure if that’s a visual glitch as the sound doesn’t return but the bar says it’s at max again, or if some things do while others do not reset or in other words; it’s confusing.
• The credits button doesn’t work, it just doesn’t do anything.
• I find it a bit of a missed opportunity that the little fun facts you get after completing start to repeat themselves, I would have loved to read and learn more.
• The achievements are broken, each set is missing one as achievement 1 starts to count at plate 2 and plate 1 gives nothing of each set; two collections of their achievements don’t have proper imagery and show up as broken images in the ‘my achievements’.
• There also seems to be a small grammar issue –and correct me if I’m wrong here- but I believe it should’ve been ‘completed’ instead of ‘complated’? Knowing the developer may not be native English – no shame in that, neither am I- this is easily forgivable not to mention I’m fluent myself in typonese, typing and reading.

⇥Closing word⇤

I have to be honest, it really hurts a little to give this a thumbs down since I adore the artwork and the original concept of having broken plates that we get to put back together. Sadly the state it is in right now, I cannot in good conscience recommend it. Yet, I also don’t want to discard the game fully as it’s a small price and it did bring me a few hours of gameplay that was mildly enjoyable. Not to mention there is another set of plates on its way.
On that note, I do believe that the developer put love and effort into it. If they could polish it a bit more and fixes the issues; this would be a great, relaxing puzzle game to have in your library.
I do hope my negative review won’t make the developer’s head hang down but rather encourages them to make work of it so I can put my thumb up, as a part of me would really love to do that, for this little charming gem.
I would absolutely play the next collection that comes out and hope there will be even more after that, keep them coming!

With love,
Tchii

⇥TL;DR⇤

A charming and relaxing puzzle with a refreshing concept where you restore plates that have beautiful artwork. 3 themes to choose from, and 60 plates to complete. But do note it still has some flaws.

I received the product for free. I did not receive any compensation to write this review. The opinions represented here are entirely my own and were not influenced in any way.

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Relaxing jigsaw puzzle game with a unique look.

The game offers 80 levels that take a couple of hours give and take to complete, so it's on the easy side. My playtime is longer than that due to issues with bugs with missing tiles, BUT these have now been fixed.
A little more polish would be needed for it to be a great game, since for instance the controls when grabbing/placing tiles can be a bit finicky at times. The dev has made some adjustments over time though, so I think it is better now than it was when the game was first released. :) But for the price it's a nice little game. I also appreciate that there are no timers, so no stress. Just pour a cup of your favourite beverage, sit back and relax. :)

Note for achievement hunters: All achievements are fixed, so easy 80 achievements - 1 for each completed level.

This could be the poster child for why it's not smart to skip QA testing. If there's an area of the game that isn't poorly executed I haven't found it yet. Too many bugs to list and the developer doesn't appear interested in fixing or even taking any pride in their game as can be seen in the lack of updates and community feedback. I'd wish this game upon no one.