Aloof

Genre: Match-5 Puzzle

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local), 2-4 Team Competitive (Local)

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Review:

Aloof is a Match-5 Puzzle Game released on PC and Nintendo Switch in 2021. This game has players taking the role of a boat-piloting rabbit fighting in sea battles with various enemies, with their efforts represented by the Match-5 Puzzle.

This presentation is one of the more inexplicable elements of Aloof, being surprisingly grim and dour for a Puzzle game featuring small anthropomorphic animals, almost like it’s aiming for a tone akin to Watership Down or the NIMH franchise. The color palette is muted, the soundtrack is dramatic and depressing, and despite the cartoony nature of the animals and the simple depiction of their attacks as waves, their battles are depicted with a cold ruthlessness that feels very strange here.

Players in the game make their attacks by connecting 5 like-colored blocks together Puyo Puyo-style, but both players and enemies in the game often have recharging shields that require making matches in quick succession to do permanent damage, usually either via chain or combo. What’s more, players must also beat in mind the goal of making specific shapes as directed, as this is the only way to expand your shields and repair damage.

While this makes for some good nuance to make players think through their placement, I have seen first-hand how these added requirements for effective play have stumped more casual Puzzle game players – two casual players I convinced to try this game simply couldn’t wrap their head around how to play effectively, and this left them frustrated with the game. This is despite an extremely protracted tutorial section in the game’s campaign, which was not only tedious but didn’t quite do a good enough job demonstrating to newer players how to play effectively.

This frustration is alleviated somewhat by playing in co-op mode, where players can opt to coordinate their moves to create the desired effect, rather than one player having to set up complex chains to be effective. It is in this gameplay mode that the game is most effective, and I would argue this is actually a superb way to do co-op in a Puzzle game, and I can definitely see how playing this game with two teams of two competing for dominance could be a blast. However, even here the gloomy atmosphere saps a lot of the fun out of the experience.

I think that in the end, Aloof is a Puzzle game that had a lot of great ideas that gave it massive potential, but it made some very big missteps – its tedious and long tutorial doesn’t do enough to properly prepare more casual players how to play the game effectively, and its depressing atmosphere runs counter to the fun party atmosphere the game had potential to deliver. I can still see this game being tons of fun in the right circumstances, but due to its problems I doubt most players will see those circumstances.

tl;dr – Aloof is a Match-5 Puzzle Game that has players creating Puyo Puyo-style matches in specific shapes to succeed in seafaring battles between anthropomorphic animals. The mechanics here are deep, and the co-op play and team competitive elements hold a lot of potential, but the game’s overly-long tutorial doesn’t do a good enough job preparing players for effective play, and the extremely dour presentation saps all the fun out of the game. There’s still plenty of fun to be had here if you look for it, but it’s just a shame that it’s buried under these problems.

Grade: C

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