Platform: PC
Developer: http://2dengine.com/

Chains is a small puzzle game with the basic idea of chaining together little balls of colour. You can chain together the same colour as long as they are adjacent to each other. When three or more are chained together, those chained together will disappear. It is quite a simple idea, the real differences appears in the level designs.

Some level you might need to chain together bubbles to eliminate 100, while others you might need to make a combo chain of 20. There is even levels where you need to keep chaining colours and removing them so that a flow can be achieved and others where you can only lose so many to elemental effects. All these different types of levels ensure you want to keep playing just to see what is next. Unfortunately there are only 20 puzzles, but this isn’t bad. It is short and sweet and each level has something different to offer, or expand from an older idea.

The simplest colours and style stand out and draw a player in, but the most surprising thing to find was the quality of the music. The tracks behind this game will enhance the mood of the level. A calm early level will have a nice, slow, calming music, while later levels with some more stress will have louder drums and guitar sounds over the calming piano.

To keep players coming back you can complete for various things on each level like the longest chain or fastest completion. Each game can have up to 15 profiles however it would have been nice to have some kind of online ranking system, as opposed to hot seating 15 friends just to see how we would go.

This is a real stand out puzzle game with some great music and ideas. The complexity of some of the levels will keep you challenged as you adapt for each different puzzles unique trick. Chains is just a great but short puzzle game that lets you have fun and keeps you wanting more even after the end.

Ingenuity: 9/10

A nice puzzle idea but just the vast difference between the levels really makes this simple idea stand out.

Enjoyment: 8/10

The puzzles are great and challenging and just the differences will keep you entertained.

Replayability: 5/10

You can come back to get a higher score or higher chain combo. However just attempting new puzzles in different ways is just as good. The limit on 20 puzzles is nice, but seems a little too short.

Presentation: 7/10

The background sometimes clashes with the color of the bubbles. The music is simply amazing and really suits the stress of the later puzzles or the calmness of the first.

Overall: A-

This game is a great puzzler and if you are into puzzle games, definitely check this one out. The variety in the level designs and tasks to complete are so vast that it doesn’t make you feel like you are doing the same thing over and over. Some strategy is needed for some, and some will frustrate you, but you will want to finish them all.