Azkend 2: The World Beneath Review

"Productive Matching"

Campaign

Azkend 2 is an interesting puzzle game that adds a layer of productive storytelling to it. This was nice as most puzzle games just throw out endless rows of levels to solve and that's usually quite boring. With Azkend you're attempting to build pieces needed on your dangerous expedition and there's some dialogue thrown into the mix as well. While I didn't find the story to be that interesting it did make the game much more than just your typical puzzle solver. Each act is split into a number of sections and they did a great job in making most of them feel unique. While you were building items you'd attempt to get the necessary pieces to the end of the puzzle before the time ran out. Things would change and be manipulated based on the area so sometimes the variations caused you to solve pieces multiple times in order to accomplish this. There were also lightning strikes available if you were able to chain enough pieces together which made the overall process of clearing the board more efficient. The campaign was of decent length so the overall experience was fine though I wish there was a bit more to it in terms of additional modes.

Gameplay

The board of moving tiles was always laid out in a number of different ways and the design of the tiles also changed throughout the story. This kept things fresh and it was a rather simple look, perhaps a bit too much at times. On top of the tiles you could also find some interesting special ones that had unique abilities or negative tiles that forced you to do certain tasks before removing them. You also unlocked special abilities after the completion of the pieces you're building in the narrative which also have unique effects on the board when equipped.

The Conclusion

Akzend 2 is a solid puzzle game that does mix it up from others in the genre. This is done through unique tiles and the effects on them along with the way the story is combined into the core puzzle levels. It'll provide a decent amount of hours to play the game though unless you're interested in going for extra bonus stars there's not much else to play. Still, it was an interesting title and definitely something to check out if you're a fan of puzzle games or the matching system titles as it performs both of those quite well.

Azkend 2: The World Beneath Review on Xbox One
Review Code provided by 10tons

Rating Overall: 6.2