![]() ![]() You could play the same puzzles with real wood and rope, if you could find the materials and time to get started. Instead it emulates a reality without the trappings of a distracting environment. I like to talk about how games can achieve something that other mediums are incapable of, but I'm not sure if Zen Bound 2 is an exclusive gaming experience. On one hand they're most certainly casual, but if you let yourself get lost in the zen of it all, you just might find a deeper, more meaningful moment. ![]() ![]() The Zen Bound games rely on you to approach them as quiet puzzles, instead of mechanical tricksters. There's a meditative pace to the process and the tactile feel of the presentation can be quite grounding to experience. It's the kind of game that I'll open up for a puzzle when I want to wind down, or empty my mind. I haven't finished playing it yet, but I know I will someday. Mixing all of this together with the tactile visuals of wooden shapes, fibrous rope, and soft blossoms really presents the personality of Zen Bound 2's style. Sometimes the rope can't hold on to a corner and snaps out of place with a jarring crack. Simple ambient sounds make up the soundtrack punctuated by that tight creak of rope as you pull it tighter. To enhance this there is a great soundscape to accompany the harmony of the experience. There's a good feeling of tension as you pull and twist the rope around each carving. It's definitely calming to be working your way through trees, opening flowers, lighting lanterns, and manipulating wooden objects with rope. The graphics don't need to have a lot going on, but what's there looks great and serves the overall ambience of the game well. However, the real kicker for the game is the level of polish that sets it apart from other mobile games. I really enjoy Zen Bound 2, primarily because of the puzzle mechanics and the simple challenge of winding rope around a variety of shapes. The difficulty curve is smooth, but presents a decent challenge, especially if you're trying to get 100% coverage on all puzzles. The first few stages (each containing a number of puzzles) were easy enough to get 100% coverage, but I've quickly slipped in later stages to an average of about 80% completion. This is similar to the common three-star rating that mobile games have to try and create an element of replay-ability. It takes planning as you may need to get into a gap at some point, so it's important not to wind rope across the gap in a way that would block it.īeing a mobile port, there are three levels of completion for each puzzle, and each level opens a flower on the level select. What's more, as the puzzles get harder, the carvings get more complex and present difficult areas to cover. To make things challenging, each puzzle has a limited length of rope, so you're unable to just wind inefficiently until all surfaces are covered. With these simple inputs you are able to move the carving in such a way that you effectively wrap the rope around each shape in the most efficient way possible. By clicking and dragging with the left mouse button you rotate one axis using the right mouse button rotates another. Your inputs only serve to rotate and shift the carving, there are no other inputs required. Sometimes this can be a lazy way to port a game, but for Zen Bound 2 it works. The game is entirely mouse-driven (on PC) as it essentially replaces the touch controls from iOS. By then end, you want to have as many surfaces of the carved object covered in the rope, which stains the wood with paint as you go. Each carving has two nails fixed at certain points and it’s the player's job to wind a rope from one nail, around the carving, then tie it off on the other nail. The basic idea is that each puzzle features a wooden carving of anything from animals to abstract shapes.
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