Buy Auro: A Monster-Bumping Adventure

I started playing the mobile version of Auro during beta almost four years ago and am really excited to finally have it on my PC as well. After all this time and thousands upon thousands of matches, I'm still playing it almost every day. At this point I can safely say that this is one of the BEST VIDEO GAMES EVER.

While it may seem simple and like a typical "mobile game" at first sight, there is a LOT more to it. The emergent depth this game unfolds over time is quite incredible and puts at least 90% of all PC and console game releases to shame. Every piece, every single rule, in the game has been balanced and honed for years to make for one of the best examples we have of a well-designed gameplay system. Rest assured that you have never played a "dungeon crawler" like this before.

The laser-sharp focus on the core mechanism of "bumping" makes every monster and spell in the game work together beautifully. On top of that though, the "competitive single-player" metagame is nothing less than revolutionary in how it does away with pretty much every typical problem of match-based "highscore" single-player games.

Do yourself a favor and buy this game! And in doing so, tell the world that good gameplay matters more than audiovisual pomp and exploitative business models.

I'm one of those guys that plays games looking depth... real depth. I know I'm in the minority here, but things that are truly novel just speak to my soul. Because of that, I tend to drift from game to game, playing everything in my library at least once or twice, but hardly ever come back to them once I "get it".

Auro is not one of those drift-able games! I originally bought it on Android about a year ago, and have sunk hours and hours into it. This game offers true strategy, not the feigned depth of most strategy games out there. Most strategy games add tons and tons of complexity to their rule-set to keep the player from ever mastering the them. Auro keeps it super simple and elegant. After a hardcore year of trying to "get it" I keep being delighted with the emergence of strategies discovered through gameplay!

Seriously, out of every game I've ever owned, Auro is the game that has kept my adult brain entertained the longest.

Dive in, bump some foes, give it a solid chance. You'll be glad you dropped a few bucks on a game that rivals the simplicity and elegance of the greats like Chess or Go. A modern take on a true evergreen game.

Auro is pure tactics: it's turn-based but the matches are fast, it puts you right into the game immediately - there's no filler content, or filler gameplay - and there's a single-player Elo system that decides the difficulty based on your skill level. I have played hundreds of hours in beta versions for mobile and PC and I am constantly surprised by how close my matches are still. There's a bit of a learning curve, but once it clicks and you're able to play faster, it's really hands down my favorite single-player game.

I played this game loads on Android last year, and they've really overhauled it for the steam version. The game never looked terrible, but the new coat of paint looks great and is definitely appreciated. The campaign mode, too, has been re-themed and reworked. The menus don't have the same graphical polish as the rest of the game, but for the £6 asking price I'm not too fussed.

I should warn the people thinking of buying - this is a tactics game through and through. If you're looking for an immersive story or buckets of content you should go elsewhere. But if you enjoy strategy games like Advance Wars, Final Fantasy Tactics, Outwitters, or even Chess then you'll get a lot of value out of Auro. The game starts simple, but put in a little effort and it rapidly ramps up the number of pieces on the board and becomes pretty deep.

I'll probably be putting as many hours into this as I did on the mobile version. I recommend it to anyone who likes tactics games.

DISCLAIMER: I received this product for no cost for the purpose of reviewing. However, this does not affect my views and opinions of the game.

Auro: A Monster-Bumping Adventure, or "Auro" for short, is a bit a of strange game with a strange concept. It is a 2D tactics-based game with a very light-hearted theme. The game is a PC port of a mobile game that came out sometime ago, though it seemed to have translated well to the PC. There is no tutorial when you start the game, though it might not be needed, as the game objective and game-play is quite simple and easy to pick up on. You move your character around and run or "bump" into enemies to knock them into the water. After bumping a certain amount of enemies, you complete the stage.

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Graphics: 7 / 10

I actually like the visuals and art-style of the game. The pixel graphics are nice and I find myself drawn to games with this sort of style. They look good although there aren't any resolution or full screen options within the PC port, so I'm stuck playing in a small windowed box (I don't even know the resolution). That being said, since the game was made for mobile, it should run perfectly fine on most, if not all graphic cards and CPUs. I had no problem launching and running the game as it wasn't very demanding on my setup.

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Sound: 6 / 10

The sound quality is decent considering it's a mobile port. The background music that plays throughout the game isn't amazing and eventually gets tuned out due to concentrating on the game, but it doesn't feel repetitive or annoying. The rest of the sound assets such as bumping into enemies or using skills are fine. They don't stand out, but they get the job done without distracting the player.

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Mechanics: 8 / 10

The game's complexity lies within it's simplicity. You move along a hexagonal grid trying to bump enemies off their tiles and into the water. You do this by simply clicking where you want to move. There is some strategy involved as enemies move when you do, and they don't want to be bumped off, so naturally they'll try not get caught between you and the water. You can also be hit and bumped by enemies, and when this happens you lose some hp. You need a certain amount of points to complete each stage (which you get by bumping off enemies). After each stage, you get some points added to your progress bar, and after you complete a progress bar, new enemies and challenges are added to the game. You do have some skills at your disposal that can help you kill, trap, or bump off enemies, but you need to step on certain tiles to collect skill points before using them. The game gets progressively more difficult as you complete your progress bars.

There is a combo system in the game, however, I have not figured out how it's triggered or how it works. Though I'm not sure how much this system actually impacts the game. There is a bit of a story to the game. Your character is a king of some sort, battling other rival kings in this "bumping" game. For some reason, although the other rival kings seem like decent people, they send monsters and creatures after you to try and bump you into the water.

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Final Personal Remarks:

The game isn't something I enjoy personally, as I'm terrible with games that require a lot of thought. I don't understand why the rival kings don't battle you themselves, and instead send waves of giant rats and slimes after you. It doesn't seem fair for the poor king Auro. Though it's a game and it's doesn't have to make sense, I just thought it was a bit funny. I can see how people would be addicted to this sort of game and would not be able to stop playing. There is satisfaction when you successfully knock enemies where you want them to go, and when a plan comes together nicely.

Thanks to the devs for giving me the opportunity to review the game, as well as anyone who took this review into consideration, I hope it helped.

A friend of mine first introduced Auro: A Monster-Bumping Game to me a couple of years ago when it was going through beta for mobile devices. The gameplay immediately became addictive and very challenging. Although the game may appear at first to be a rather simplistic mobile port I’ve long hoped that the game would find a home in the Steam catalog because the game’s depth is exactly what a lot of strategy fans have been seeking for.

The object of the game is to bump monsters off of the map and into the water. Doing so will award you points the amount of which is dependent upon the combo that you are currently riding. You need to score a certain amount of points each level to progress to the next. Players have spells at their disposal to aide their progress and learning the best use of these spells is arguably the most important aspect of the game. This will take time and experience proving that the game is difficult to master.

This may sound contradictory but the game is relatively simple to pick up once you understand the basics. But it’s learning the basics that may cause a relatively steep learning curve for beginners. You’re going to want to watch the how to play video, which is below in the Steam description, to give yourself an understanding of the basics before you begin. Some of you who do watch the video will gain an early appreciation for just how deep the game can become.

From a technical presentation perspective the music and the graphics are more than suitable for the game. Neither are overly flash or fantastic but they achieve what the developers hoped that they would.

The $8.99 asking price is quite reasonable for a strategy game of this nature. It’s only a couple of dollars more than the iOS version of the game and considering that it was fully released last year onto the device you can understand why the game is slightly more expensive. The game on iOS has a 91% metacritic rating which is well deserved. This isn’t just a game that has been ported cheaply onto Steam only to be forgotten about as the devs have given strong support to their game on all platforms. I would only ask that they add Steam achievements and trading cards so that the game can become fully Steamified.

I played Auro a lot on my phone so I was excited to see it coming to my preferred platform. Auro is a game where you really feel like your decisions matter, one mistep could cost you your advantage and put you on the defensive, but when you get that perfect combo and watch your enemies sink it's incredibly satisfying. The pixel art adds an unmistakable charm and it's obvious that a lot of work went into art as well as gameplay, The deeper you look into this game the more you see what makes it great.

Solid gameplay and a complexity that's purely the result of good design, not clutter and frustration. You won't get caught off guard by random effects or failures, (enemies act according to their rules, spells have the intended effect,) but every situation is very different, and that just means you can plan your strategy, which you will need to do, to survive. Try stacking spells and attacks, or even let monsters attack or use a spell in a new situation, they've thought all the possibilities out extremely well. It has the fun of a dungeon crawler, but the tactics of Chess... if the board were different, every time... and your queen could make pawns trail fire, as they move.

It's easy enough to sit and play a round or two, and be totally satisfied. More often, though, I find myself trying to ride a winning streak, or coming up with a tactic I'm dying to try, and I've played half a dozen rounds before I realize it. Then I play another half dozen, just to round it out. Dinofarm Games has a knack for making you feel like a badass, until you make a poor decision, and then you learn that they aren't holding your hand. Creative thinking and a little planning are the keys to success. With a decent, fair learning curve, beautiful pixel art, good music, and a sense of humor, Auro easy to pick up, but with enough depth, variation, and challenge to keep it from getting stale.

This is the game that inspired me to make my own games. Incredibly elegant, fun, and strategically interesting for an extremely long time. One of the best games available period.

I have been an avid Auro player since 2012 (nearly four years)! This game is a marvel, the closest thing to an evergreen game that you will find. The new 2.0 version is a cut above the previous mobile versions in both art and gameplay, and I can't wait to spend some quality time with it.

At first, Auro may strike you as a bit weird: There aren't any experience points or tons of cool items or achievements. That's because the game is fun and interesting on the basis of its core interactions alone. It truly doesn't need all that cruft to capture and hold your attention. You may have to spend a bit of time learning, especially with this new version--there's no tutorial--but put in the time and you will find the game more than pays you back.