Puzzle genre is one of the most challenging genres for the game developers. We often encounter puzzles in other genres such as adventure and action-adventure but they are not the backbone of gameplay. The other elements (e.g. story and action) play a more important role in these cases. However, in puzzle games, we are mainly dealing with puzzles. The design and implementation of a considerable number of puzzles in a game require high creativity and rationality. Jesse Makkonen has taken on the challenge of making a puzzle title in his fourth experience. Heal is a 2D point and click puzzle game with a dark atmosphere.

The story is about an old man starting a journey to obtain something important. In puzzle games, It is not a must to always have a story. Some of the good puzzle games such as Baba is You mange to engage the gamer's interest without even a line of story. However, the existence of a story can always motivate the gamer to continue solving puzzles. Although we are not facing a deep and complex story in Heal, it does the job and successfully arouses interest. After starting the game, some important questions keep our minds busy. Who is the old man? What is he looking for? What is the purpose of this journey? The curiosity to answer all these questions and to discover the identity of the old man push us forward to solve the puzzles and see the ending.

There are in total seven levels in the game and each level contains around five puzzles. The puzzles are mostly connected, i.e., solving a particular puzzle reveals a part of the solution for the next one. Hence, they should be solved in a specific order. The difficulty of the puzzles also increases when you advance in the game. I believe a good puzzle should force the gamer to think about it deeply and then make the gamer praise himself or herself for finding the solution. Therefore, the puzzles shouldn't be too trivial that one can solve them without thinking or too hard that causes frustration. The puzzles in Heal are quite standard and they mostly enjoy the features of a good puzzle. When you face a puzzle in the game, you need to think about its logic, search for clues in the environment, and then finally try to come up with the solution.

The main weakness of Heal is the lack of a consistent and powerful world. Successful puzzle games, e.g. Baba is you and The Talos Principle, always build their own world and define its rules and principles. It means that there are some universal concepts in this world and all puzzles inherit from these concepts. Thus, as we progress in the game and encounter new mechanisms still we feel that the puzzles have something in common and they are consistent. Unfortunately, we do not see such a world in Heal. The quality of the puzzles is good but there is not a universal idea behind them. Therefore, they look discrete and conceptually independent.

Heal is a short game, and it can be completed in less than two hours. Moreover, similar to other puzzle titles, the replayability of the game is low. Nevertheless, if we consider the low price of Heal, I can recommend it to all fans of the puzzle genre.

Verdict:

Heal is a good puzzle game that features entertaining puzzles and a heartwarming story. Jesse Makkonen has successfully managed to engage our interest for a few hours. However, the lack of a consistent and powerful world prevents us from remembering the game after a while.