Along with the likes of Zen chillax-athon Unpacking (2021), we now have joys of repairing antiques in video game form.
Assemble With Care is from ustwo games, the London indie studio responsible for the legendary mobile game Monument Valley II (and the first one).
This one is just as relaxing. It launched in March 2020 (in time for the global pandemic!) and it’s an intriguing time of things.
Assemble With Care (or pay the ruddy consequences!)
Available on iPhones and Mac, you can also get this on Steam where we picked it up on sale for a truly Earth shattering £1.
This is classed as a puzzle game, it’s just a unique take on the genre. As the player you get a series of objects that you have to dissect and then piece back together.
Part by part. Yes, then, this is a fiddly one (if you like that type of thing you’re in luck right here, sonny Jim).
There’s a story to go with the game. As a young traveller you head to Bellariva (a fictional town in Spain) and help the locals fix all manner of stuff.
The fixing bit is the main aspect of the game with touch controls and gesture-based majiggers in place to dismantle parts. Here’s the thing in action.
Yeah, so it’s a piece-by-piece kind of game. The idea being some people will find this sort of thing relaxing and/or mentally invigorating. Which we did!
And here’s another example in the form of a handheld games console.
Some people in this world just thrill in finding out how stuff works. Assemble With Care, at its very best, provides a calming sense of joy around that activity.
But at its worst it’s bloody annoying. Our main issue with it is the twee story that goes with the gameplay, which is laborious to get through and made us pointlessly infuriated about annoying tourists (well, our reaction wasn’t that strong we’re just being hyperbolic).
Away from that the core aspect is the picking things apart. It’s good fun and you do get a challenge out of each new chapter.
It’s highly rewarding whenever you work something out and successfully piece together your latest onscreen project. That’s all awesome.
But it also can get a little repetitious after a while.
The game met with mixed reviews from the gaming press, with Edge magazine even handing it a 5/10. However, Destructoid provided 7/10 and the Steam player reviews are currently very positive for it.
Ultimately, it’s a relaxing little game that’s cheap and offers an interesting distraction. We think 7/10 is very fair indeed.
We like the concept a great deal, it’s just the twee execution of an annoying voiceover and much repetitive tinkering takes the edge off an otherwise enjoyable game.
