Azkend 2 Takes Puzzles To A Whole New Level
Azkend 2 HD - The World Beneath ($3.99) by 10tons Ltd is a new puzzle game for both the iPhone and iPad. Players are taken back to the 18th century and are aboard a ship en route to New York from Liverpool. During this voyage, the ship is destroyed in a massive storm and players awake in a new world.
After the shipwreck, players must find and rebuild tools lost in the shipwreck so they can make it back to civilization. Each of the 17 chapters in the adventure has an item that players must assemble. Pieces of each item are won by completing a puzzle. Each chapter has three to four puzzles.
Azkend’s puzzles are simple, but very entertaining. The puzzles are all the same format, starting out easy and increasing in difficulty as the game progresses. The puzzles are filled with hexagonal tiles, each with a symbol. Players must select three or more tiles that are connected to eliminate them. After the tiles have been eliminated the board piece below them turns blue, and new tiles fall into place. Once all board pieces are blue, an item piece appears on the top. Players must work the item piece down to the bottom of the puzzle to complete the puzzle and win the item.
The first two chapters are tutorials that explain the different power-ups and methods of playing. As players progress through the chapters, puzzles become increasingly difficult with more tiles, additional symbols, different time requirements, etc.
Aside from the story mode, Azkend 2 has time and medal challenges. These two modes of gameplay challenge players to complete puzzles as fast as possible with the highest scores. Azkend 2 has Game Center support with leaderboards and achievements.
This game is exceptionally well designed. There are beautifully illustrated cut scenes between puzzles and all the graphics are superb. The story scenes are narrated and have a cinematic soundtrack by Johnathan Greer.
Overall, I was extremely impressed with the quality of Azkend 2. The puzzles are lots of fun and challenging. The app has exceptional graphics and is very well designed. I highly recommend this game to all iDevice users. Be sure to check it out in the App Store and take advantage of the 33 percent introductory discount.
