A Sliding Puzzle That Will Test Your Limits
There’s something about the premise of a puzzle game that is both brilliantly simple, and yet utterly addictive. Although you could argue the genre is perfectly suited to gaming on the go, Out of Moves is here in an attempt to sit you down on your sofa and offer the same experience on Xbox.
Sliding to Success
Out of Moves is a take on that classic sliding puzzle game you had as a kid. You need to move the rather cute little grey block to victory, i.e. by reaching the jewel located in the same maze. What makes things a little more tricky is the fact that you can only move up, down, left or right.
To further restrict your options, each level gives you a limited number of moves with which to reach the jewel. As you progress through Out of Moves, spikes will make you think twice about which way to move to prevent you getting boxed into a corner. You can easily restart the level by hitting the X button, and trust me, you’ll be doing so a fair few times.
Navigating the Maze: Arrows, Teleporters, Keys, and Barriers
As your journey progresses, further complications are thrown in to stop you getting to those precious jewels. Certain tiles marked with arrows will push you in that given direction when you make contact with them. These can both be a blessing and a curse, saving you moves or pushing you way off course. Teleporters also work in the same way, taking you to a different part of the level without you being able to change course.
You will also come across blocked off areas in each level, colour coded with the corresponding key seemingly easily accessible at first. Collecting keys in the right order when these barriers are stacked, and then getting to the jewel within the required set of moves, is probably the most challenging scenario in Out of Moves. Trial and error or some clever forward thinking will get you there eventually.
A Brief but Brain-Tickling Journey
There are thirty levels in Out of Moves which do grow more complicated as you play. However, it still feels a little meagre in terms of an offering due to how quickly you’ll blast through them if you can see the way forward. Fifty levels or so would have been the perfect balance in my opinion.
There are three different themes to the bundle of levels, starting in a desert location, progressing through a mountainous region and finally finishing in a dense forest. Most of the time the move limit is exactly the amount you need to complete the level, but occasionally you’ll finish with a few spare.
One of the things I do like a lot about Out of Moves is that most of the levels are genuinely tricky. Whether it’s thinking five steps ahead or trying to reverse engineer a solution from the jewel’s location, you’ll be firing up that grey matter and giving it a good workout. This also speaks to the fact that the level design is solid which offers a certain amount of challenge to the player.
Gamerscore and Longevity: A Quick Hit or a Long Haul?
Once again, there’s real value for money when it comes to achievements in Out of Moves. There’s a generous 2000 Gamerscore up for grabs, which you’ll bag in no time at all given it’s doled out for completing levels, getting hit by spikes and even hitting the restart button. Oh and if you play the different versions of the game included in the bundle pack, you have the potential to triple your earnings.
On the subject of longevity, it depends on how good you are at problem solving as to how long you’ll be sliding around the various mazes in Out of Moves. The difference will be minutes rather than hours and on average it’ll likely not take you longer than an hour to gather all thirty jewels.
A Bright Puzzle Distraction
Out of Moves is a bright little puzzle game inspired by some classics of the genre. If you’re after a brief distraction to get your brain blossoming, you could do a lot worse.
Important Links
Every Step Counts in Limited Puzzler Out of Moves – https://www.thexboxhub.com/every-step-counts-in-limited-puzzler-out-of-moves/
Buy Out of Moves, Optimised for Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/out-of-moves/9P7BXDRNXX3H/0010
Or take in an Xbox One edition – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/out-of-moves-xbox-one/9NSMSQ613JGW/0010
There’s an Xbox Bundle too – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/out-of-moves-xbox-bundle/9MSWD4K9C98Q/0010
As well as a big Xbox and PC Bundle – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/out-of-moves-xbox-windows-bundle/9NRN89WKF1JF/0010
