Tin Hearts review for Switch, PC, PlayStation, Xbox

Officially, Tin Hearts may have gotten its start as an Oculus VR game about five years ago, but you don?t have to look very hard to see that its real roots are from thirty years ago.

See, this game is basically Lemmings. Yes, it?s got prettier graphics, and yes, there?s a plot, and, yes, above all else, it?s about toy soldiers rather than lemmings, but when you get right down to it, the whole point of Tin Hearts is that you have a bunch of soldiers who can only march in a straight line unless you divert them in another direction, and it?s up to you to get them from Point A to Point B. However you want to dress it up, it?s still Lemmings.

Admittedly, in saying that I?m eliding over a lot of what makes Tin Hearts unique. The visuals are pretty stellar, for starters. You can tell that this game got its start as a VR title based on the amount of detail that went into the world, and you can really see it when the game allows you to zoom in on the individual soldiers. Further, these details play into the broader story about a toy inventor named Albert J. Butterworth, helping to reinforce the message of a game that?s clearly trying to tug on your heartstrings.

Still, there?s no getting around the fact that the gameplay itself is nothing we haven?t seen before. In fact, there?s an argument to be made that Tin Hearts is even easier than your usual Lemmings-like, thanks to the fact you can play around with time. It starts out easy, as you quickly place your blocks around the level right at the start, and gets even easier once you gain the ability to manipulate time. Even when the game adds in an enemy, it?s still not enough to hide the fact there?s nothing new here.

But if you?re a fan of Lemmings ? or even just a fan of heartfelt stories with nice visuals ? there?s still plenty here you should be able to enjoy. Tin Hearts isn?t going to make you rethink your opinion of the genre, but if you?re already a fan, you?ll have fun with this.

Wired Productions provided us with a Tin Hearts Switch code for review purposes.