Mini Review: Tin Hearts (PS5) - Charming Lemmings Inspired Adventure Has Moving Storytelling

Tin Hearts is a Lemmings-style game from Guildford based developer Rogue Sun. You play from the first-person perspective of a spectral being, exploring and experiencing Albert J Butterworth’s family life memories as you lead wind-up toy soldiers around his workshop, getting them from point A to point B by possessing various objects.

You’ll begin each of the 50 plus available levels by opening a small box, setting in motion the tin soldiers straight line walking. You’ll then need to possess and position various toys, triangular blocks, trains, cannons, windmills, drums, and so on to redirect them to the exit. These puzzles become more advanced as you progress, therefore it's great to see the addition of hints that can aid you should you get stuck.

You also have complete control over time during the entire game, being able to pause the soldiers, speed them up, or even rewind time should you make a mistake. It means you can take everything at your own pace and there's no need to reload levels; a tin soldier accidentally falling to their demise can be undone in an instant with a simple rewind.

As you guide the little men on their merry way throughout the family home, you’ll encounter past family life memories in the form of touching cutscenes played out by spirits. This can be anything from Albert reading his daughter a bedtime story, to Albert’s wife playing the harp in the lounge; it's all presented in the most touching way and fits the pacing of the game perfectly.

Unfortunately, Tin Hearts does suffer from some rather noticeable bugs: the game crashes fairly frequently, the camera is often jarring when repositioning from one point of view to another, and the framerate stutters occasionally. It should be noted, the developer is currently putting out patches to remedy some of these issues. However, none of this can take away from the glorious presentation: with charming visuals and animations being accompanied by beautifully soothing music, it's a really quite wonderous experience.

Tin Hearts is a charming Lemmings spiritual successor with a moving story that's perfectly presented with gorgeous visuals and relaxing music. The few bugs and frame rate issues aren’t enough to prevent us recommending this excellent title. This isn’t one to march on by.