PC

Azkend 2: The World Beneath’s Match 3 Gameplay is Familiar, But Will Take Up All Your Time Anyway

Mis-matched.

Azkend

Azkend 2: The World Beneath on PC

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My ship, the Celestia, had been pulled down into a whirlpool in the middle of the ocean. I was helpless as it swirled and spiraled into the depths. I awoke in a strange new place, but I couldn’t see. My glasses had been broken in the shipwreck, and if I could fix them then I would be able to orient myself. How would I go about this? Well, by playing a quick match 3 game of course!

There’s something in the title that’s quite self-aware. It hints at the world beneath the match 3 game you’ll be playing; it hints at the weird idea of there being a world beneath that. And what is this world? Well, it’s Azkend: a magical realm of far-fetched happenings, the likes of which have been cribbed from the old classic adventure games. It’s a tale of high-seas adventure and fantasy. It’s also a match 3 game, though.

Now, I’m really not going to start up on one about ludo-narrative dissonance (although I’ve always secretly wanted to), but Azkend 2 does feel a little bit strange to play. If you look at something like the Professor Layton games, they found ways to excuse what the game actually was. You would need to lower a bridge for instance, but the inevitable puzzle that ensued would vaguely be related to bridges, or the shapes that would make a crank to turn to lower a bridge – or something. And often those games were actually funny in a self-aware way. Characters would spring a riddle on you after you asked them the way to the shop and it would crack you up in a surreal way.

The thing is: there aren’t many ways to relate a match 3 game back to the events of anything, let alone exploring a fantasy realm. It’s Bejewelled and Candy Crush all the way. Want to make some dynamite? Match 3. Want to explore this brave new world? Match 3! Want to find a hammer and chisel? Match … 3? Yep, that’s right.

While it’s a perfectly good match 3 game in its own right, everything else around that frame is superfluous. This would be a harmless bit of color to add ornament to a tried-and-tested formula; instead what it is, is a dull story with bad voice-acting that takes time away from the core concept. The shame of this, I think, is the care that has gone into Azkend 2’s art. You will only ever be hammering your mouse button to advance to the next chunk of endorphin-infused color-matching, and this means ignoring a lot of the art work. You are periodically forced to play a separate mini-game wherein you’ll click parts of a painting, trying to match the small clue you have and place it to where it belongs in the bigger picture. I said I liked the art; I could have done without being forced to stare at it for the sake of a distraction.

As a match 3 game it’s perfectly fine; in fact I had fun with it. It’s got the usual multiplier bonuses for bigger strings of matched tiles, and there’s nice little spins on the core idea: match the tiles around an ever-growing fire to put it out, for instance, or match tiles to stop some bugs from crawling their way to the top of the board. It’s dangerously compelling too: I sunk hours into the game, not really for review purposes – I think I got what I needed way before I actually wrenched myself away from the damn thing.

This had ‘perfectly fine’ written all over from when I first booted it up, but then it muddied the waters with a forgettable plot and tried to drag me away from the eye-reddening, ‘I should probably stop playing this now’ core of the game. Should you get it? If you like match 3 games then it’s a decent one, but then, if you like match 3 games you can get lots of them for free on your phone – which is surely a better home for them anyway. I think when we play match 3 games, we don’t really need a world beneath what we’re doing; we already have one – it’s the one we checked out of when we started playing.

Score: 3/5 – Fair


Pros

  • Compelling match 3 gameplay.
  • Really nice art and presentation.
  • Loads of replay value.

Cons

  • Daft story feels tacked-on.
  • Annoying distractions from the core game.

About the author

Joshua Wise

Graduated in 2014. English BA. Didn't care much for the real world. Decided to spend too long in fictional ones. Decided to write about it. Always in pursuit of an idle life...

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