Sokobos is an indie puzzle game that is developed and published by Daisy Games. Since its release on April 1st 2022, it has garnered a positive rating on Steam as of publishing this review. While it can be a bit boring with the unchanging scenery sometimes, Sokobos offers a polished and relaxing experience.
Gameplay
This game is a Sokoban clone puzzle game. Like many other games in the Sokoban genre the main objective is pretty simple; move this object to the specified area to complete the level. While it can be a repetitive experience, Sokobos offers several mechanics to hide its repetitive nature like adding movable obstacles, changing object colors to their intended place and such.
However, unlike many sokoban games, Sokobos approach on puzzle is push-only. That means that you only push around object which can be quite frustrating. Sometimes, it feels like it could benefit from a pulling mechanic too. Like, getting an object that are required to complete the level stuck in the corner of the level and that’s it. You either have to redo to retrace so many steps or press the “retry” button to reset the whole level. Without the ability to pull objects, the game can get quite hard and placed it difficulty on a steep learning curve. I hope that in the future, Daisy games the could some sort of a “grab” or “pull” button into a patch or if they decided to make sokoban clone again.
Also, throughout my playthrough, I didn’t run into any bugs and glitches whatsoever. It has been a quite nice experience so far. So, the game is quite polished in the technical side of things.
Graphics
The retro styled graphics are quite nice and clean but, with a limited amount of variation in terms of scenery changes. It can get quite boring to look at after a while. The only variation the game offers is the object, dye colors, object variety, border color, and the obstacles. Other than that, there’s only the color of black that adorned around the level.
Sounds
There are limited amount of sounds in the game, aside from the sound effects, there are only two sounds: The main menu music and several background music. Which is alright, considering the design decision and art decision by the developer but, the music is nothing to write home to. It’s just a nice, chill, music to accompany your puzzling journey.
Conclusion
There are a story element that the developer implemented too, so there’s something to keep you interesting. It is on a bare minimum but it is still quite interesting. Levels can be quite boring to look at. There are variation inside the border of the level but, beyond that there’s just the color black. The gameplay side of things are fine but it has a steep learning curve. I’m not much of a puzzle guy myself. I even struggle with to come up with a solution for most of the levels but, I could see myself sinking many hours into this game.
Overall, Sokobos offers a chill and satisfying experience. I can safely say that I recommend Sokobos but, if you are a puzzle game fan, the challenging nature will sate you itch. For others that are not however, I understand that the game’s learning curve will put you off the game. So, if you are interested give it a go and if you didn’t like the experience, you can refund it with Steam refund policy.
