Alveole

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

.

Review:

Alveole, a word that means “gap”, “pit” or “cavity”, is a Puzzle game released in 2021 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. This game has players using a single button to control a man running in a giant hamster wheel, with the apparent goal being to find all the unlockable conditions or achievements the game has to offer.

The presentation here is fairly minimalist, with everything depicted using black line art on a white background with some decent animation, all backed by a simple piano solo. Not bad, but nothing particularly noteworthy either.

Your single button press starts the wheel running, and then has the man jumping. Occasionally little triangular bumps will appear for the man to either leap over or trip on. And you’re surrounded by various trinkets that seem to be some sort of indication how to unlock the various achievements, though they don’t go so far as to tell you how to do it.

I suppose that as a Puzzle game, Alveole is at least unique, but it’s frustrating in that there seems to be little interaction you can have with the game, little guidance on what you need to do, and if you get stuck it just seems like you can’t do anything other than watch your guy run, jump, or trip until the game’s cycle resets.

$5 isn’t much for a game, but it still seems overpriced for something this simple and unimpactful. Players looking for an odd curio may find this just amusing enough to be worth the $2 price when this game goes on sale, but for most I think this is probably going to be a game they’re only briefly and mildly amused by before losing interest and regretting whatever money they spent on it.

tl;dr – Alveole is a Puzzle game where players interact with a man on a hamster wheel to try to unlock various achievements. There’s little instruction or interaction here, and while this is an odd curiosity of a game, it’s one I don’t think many players will find justifies spending money on.

Grade: C-

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Johannes, Jaka, Jared Wark, Gabriel Coronad-Medina, Francis Obst, Kristoffer Wulff, Seth Christenfeld, and Vince Verrinoldi. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}