A Block Puzzle That’s Frustratingly Vague
Ah, Love! What a wonderful thing it is, always bringing… wait that’s the title of the game? Really? Let me restart.
Ah, Love! is the first in a series of puzzles titles, combining the concept a love, into a personified block puzzle game.
This certain tale of love revolves around two young lovers, chasing one another’s heart. I could reactivate my learning brain from school, and state how this narrative personifies the intense, unfathomable, and often, non-rational feelings we experience when falling in love, even willing to bash our hearts against walls for one another… but you don’t want to read that, and I don’t want to write it!
Instead, we can acknowledge the vague story present and move onto the real main course, the gameplay.
The core gameplay found in Ah, Love!, does have promising concept. The main idea involves attracting two hearts to one another in a series of small block rooms you can move; these rooms will contain one or two exits to connect with nearby ones, however only the swapping of adjacent squares are permitted. It’s a simple concept, and one overplayed hundred of times in the gaming scene by just about every other puzzle game out there. The actual outcome plays more like a tech demo, with various solutions to the puzzles actively relying on mechanics never mentioned to you.
Hampered Progression
An example of this is how, depending on whether the hearts are above, below, or adjacent, they will move to different corners of said square, requiring quite intricate solutions, or even just moving other squares fast enough as to not let them go past the entrance. I’m all for no handholding in games, which wouldn’t have been an issue had this mechanic been common ground in similar titles, yet this is the first encounter I’ve had with a system remotely like the one found in Ah, Love! making it seem a cheap way to solve said puzzles.
Thankfully this is the only mechanic that isn’t introduced through an explanatory tutorial (making it odd that it was an outlier) yet I still have my gripes with the other present mechanics. First of these, and simple enough are romantic zones – they operate as bonus endings, in which you must ensure the two hearts meet. Its simplicity is matched by its inoffensive nature, leaving a mechanic that – whilst not adding much – is a nice bonus for completionists.
Red Blocks
The next two mechanics introduced go hand in hand – red blocks and spikes. Spikes are rather self explanatory (they will destroy your heart if it goes over it) however, red blocks need a little more detail. These coloured squares operate as firm, unmovable rooms that you must mould your solution around, rather than using it to your advantage. As a pair, these two new mechanics offer more challenge and thoughtful solutions, whilst not over-complicating puzzles for the early game.
The last mechanic worth noting is the black heart. It follows the same function as spikes (destroying your hearts) yet has one extra trick up its sleeve… it moves just like your hearts. This results in some frantic swapping of squares in a last ditch effort to solve each puzzle. Yet there is one looming problem over all of these mechanics. Said problem is the fact that, rather than opting to revisit old mechanics and combine them with newly introduced ones for extra difficulty, Ah, Love! instead opts to go through three to four stage runs of each mechanic before moving onto the next. There is truly some potential here in the gameplay, however unexplained mechanics, abandoned mechanics, and overall lack of polish, bring it down to a subpar experience.
Yo-Yo Quality
Moving onto the design of these stages, things pick up a little. From the get go, there is an over reliance on making each stage as simple as three moves, with only needing to match entrance locations to ensure the hearts will meet. As you progress, and are thus introduced to more mechanics, this issue subsides, with red blocks that cannot be moved, diagonal squares that will make you rethink the way you approach puzzles, and even connecting squares having entrances of different lengths.
Strangely, it’s not definitive whether or not the level design stays good throughout your time with Ah, Love! In fact, if it were on a graph, the quality would be going from peak to trough many times as it yo-yo’s through quality.
Potential Lost in a Lacklustre Execution
My final comments revolve around the presentation of the title, specifically music and visuals. Visually, Ah, Love! is appalling, matched only in simplicity by mobile games made to farm money from advertisements, thanks to its almost AI looking backdrops, and use of blank backdrops. Moving onto the music, it’s a little better (it definitely fits) however it just sounds like typical royalty free tunes you’d hear anywhere online.
Ah, Love! combines puzzles and brainpower to achieve its narrative. But despite the singular positive of introducing various mechanics, issues such as not using mechanics past their introduction, mediocre level design, and abysmal presentation, all result in a game slightly above the worst of the genre.
Important Links
Can You Feel the Love (and the Puzzles)? Ah, Love! Launches on Xbox and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/can-you-feel-the-love-and-the-puzzles-ah-love-launches-on-xbox-and-pc/
Buy Ah, Love! Optimised for Xbox Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/ah-love/9ndkcz6wht9s
There’s an Xbox One version – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/ah-love-xbox-one/9p45zv97k8zq
