Aloof Reviews

I didn't even get to a battle portion because I found the game fatuous, and dull. To it's credit it has a demo, but I returned it having only paid 50 cents. I really wanted to stick it out to see all that the game could have to offer because it seems to have some neat ideas, but it was just so bad to start with, there was no getting past it. By all means try the demo and see if it's for you, but I really can't recommend this game.

Great Puzzle Game good use of the swapping between boards mechanics and good teaching tools in the Story mode without walls of text. Also the first puzzle game to make a health bar that adds to the game greatly. 10/10 Would take it to locals Wish it had spectating for online tournaments tho

Aloof has a lovely unique atmosphere and simple to pick up gameplay but with insane depth. And I think I only started scratching the surface. It also has many multiplayer modes! Start for the vibe and stay for the combo's.

I don't play many puzzle games but this one captivated me with its looks and atmosphere. It can actually be very relaxing! Pleasant sound design plays a big part of it I think. It's one of those games that is pretty easy to pick up but it probably has unlimited depth if you are willing to go deep! Also props to the developer for shipping a game with some many options and multiplayer features :) Highly recommend if you are into puzzle games or looking for something different.

I am oddly frightened by this game, but it's probably the only puzzle-fighter I can decently play. I'm glad that I can change the AI speed, that relaxes me a little bit. I think it's the music more than anything that gives me an eerie vibe about the whole game. And the enemies intimidate me. But it's a pretty good game, I recommend it, and I'm glad with what I've accomplished so far. I'll definitely be using co-op in the future!

A clever and charming game. I found especially nice for a play-through ("Voyage") in co-op over a couple of hours. The artwork and music is nice and somber. That combined with the quick-thinking combat makes the game strangely relaxing and stressful at once. The gameplay is similar to- but not quite like- Puyo Puyo/Dr Mario: [list] [*] The blocks are freely movable, they don't fall automatically. The time pressure comes from having an opponent. [*] You have two boards that you can rotate between, with the off-board appearing as a shadow in the current board. This allows you to work on different patterns or chains or just toss an unwanted piece away on the other board. Also as a neat effect this allows you to (puzzle soiler): [spoiler]squeeze in a piece from the other side into an area that is blocked on the current board[/spoiler]. [*] Your board can be cleared at any time, costing only time. [/list] The puzzle-focused levels that acted a bit as tutorials, though forcing you to figure the mechanism out yourself, were just the right difficulty for us. A few of them gave that "I don't see how this is possible" (eventually...) followed by the "Oh that's so obvious" reaction. The fight levels where you have to match enemy patterns to attack effectively and your own patterns to defend were also well balanced, with a nice difficulty progression. Also, in case the game appears difficult, the enemy speed can be adjusted, even down to nothing, so it ought to be playable for anyone. The mechanisms are rewarding for co-op, as you can either collaborate to grab patterns faster (by both building the same pattern, reducing the risk of an enemy counter), coordinate and work on different patterns or have one player build a large chain for when the other player breaks the enemy armor with a complex pattern. We did not try online multiplayer, as I'm still sore from getting utterly crushed in Puyo Puyo Tetris, so I don't know if there's anyone available to play against. For the price at the time (3.99€) I think it was worth it for the 37-level campaign alone which took a couple of hours to complete.

fun, fresh, polished puzzler. feels great to coordinate builds and combos in co-op, and the head-to-head mode offers a lot of deep strategy thanks to the unique (yet intuitive) building and health mechanics. try the demo, the game does a great job of teaching you all about how its played. overall a fantastic buy for action puzzle fans, specifically puyo puyo, and also for people who want to like puyo but find it a bit overwhelming.

Aloof does have a similar gameplay to Puyo Puyo, but the goal differs. The game will ask you -more often than not- to draw a pattern, almost like a picross game. The catch being, if you match too many tiles, they will disappear and ruin your shapes. Some levels can be brute-forced but the rest is pretty chill. It gets cheap when it goes on sale, and while being on the short side of things, is trying something different, so I would recommend if the genre is something that you enjoy.

An excellent puzzle fighter. Sets itself apart from others of the genre with unique game play in the level of control and how you can manipulate the blocks when setting up groups of 5. Not much in the way of a story beyond what you pick up from the levels of battles and puzzles you encounter. That said there is a lot to take in as the art is detailed and interesting. And the music brings it all together fitting the levels and situation in battles.

This is a very good block puzzle game for fans of the genre. It is something like Puyo-Puyo, but the shape building mechanics make it stand out quite a lot from that. I wish there was more content in the game; I beat the singleplayer campaign in a few hours (though there were a couple of good puzzle levels in here that stumped me for a little while), and the vs. AI mode has 3 levels with AI speed the only difficulty setting. The co-op campaign is pretty much just the singleplayer campaign again, and the multiplayer VS has 5 levels (I think?) to choose from with fixed shapes available in each. Of course the worst issue is just that it's currently pretty obscure so there's never anyone online to play with, you'll have to pre-arrange a match with a friend. I really like this game, but I have a wishlist of features for it: * More content in the campaign mode * More customizability in the VS mode (levels with a semi-randomized shape selection, levels with unique restrictions or goals, matches that have a progression of levels instead of best of 3 on the same level, etc) * Different match-ups, like 1v1v1v1 instead of just 1v1 and 2v2, with a mix of players and AIs and Humans, such as H & A vs H & A, H & H vs H & A, H & A vs A & A, HvAvAvA, HvHvHvA, etc * Some kind of handicapping system in VS mode, so players of differing skill levels can reasonably compete * Maybe a puzzle race mode, where the health mechanics are ignored but you race to claim something like 7 shapes first with 2 or 3 available at a time maybe I have a bunch more ideas but anyway the game is great, I just wish there was a lot more of it :)