Our Ways

Visually, Our Ways features a simple and clean minimalistic art style that looks great on the eyes. Anyone who likes minimalism is sure to appreciate the visuals in Our Ways. Everything is rendered in 2D and the animations are smooth and fluid on my iPhone 8 Plus. Our Ways makes use of a wide color palette that features both soft pastels and more bright and vibrant hues. To top things off, Our Ways has an ambient and atmospheric piano soundtrack in the background that's sure to get you in the mood to solve the puzzles ahead of you.

In Our Ways, there's a total of 64 levels spread out across eight different themes. These themes are all related to relationships in the real world, so there's actual meaning behind everything. The goal in Our Ways is to help two colored dots meet each other, but like real life, this can be harder than you think. There will always be obstacles in your path, and you must make it to each other without hitting any hazards.

Controls in Our Ways are simple, but do take some practice to master. The game can be played with one or two players. To move one of the dots, just place your thumb in the colored section (that the dot isn't in) that corresponds to the dot you want to move. Drag your thumb around and the dot moves according to your thumb's movements. If you hit the wall or some other obstacle, that means you've failed and have to try again.

As each dot moves, they'll leave behind footsteps. These are supposed to represent the paths that each of us take to establish our relationships with others. They show us how we overcome the difficulties that are ahead of us, and each result ends up being unique to us. The complete result will vary depending on how many "steps" each dot took - sometimes one ends up more than the other.

There are multiple ways to complete the puzzles in Our Ways, so you can play it at your own leisure. There's no right or wrong way to play.

If you're colorblind, don't worry - there's a colorblind setting that you can toggle. This gets rid of all of the color and replaces it all with grayscale.

Our Ways is a great little puzzle game with a straightforward meaning behind it all. The minimal graphics are sure to appeal to those who believe "less is more," and the music puts your soul at ease. The controls are simple but take time and practice to master. And since there's no time limits or restrictions, everyone can play this at their own pace, and all solutions end up being distinctive. It's relaxing and helps us visualize how we can overcome obstacles for our real life relationships.

While Our Ways is an excellent puzzle game, I do wish that it was a bit easier to control the dots. When doing single player, it seems incredibly easy to have one dot go off course and run into a wall. I think the sensitivity could be better optimized to prevent this, so hopefully the developer considers it in a future update.

Overall, Our Ways is a great little gem to have on your iOS device. The puzzles look easy enough, but they're much more challenging than you think at first glance. The minimalistic art style is well done and looks excellent on Retina screens, and the colorblind option is nice to have. There's plenty of content for the price, and this is a nice game for two people to play at once.

I recommend checking out Our Ways if you're in the mood for a relaxing puzzle game that explores relationships. You can get Our Ways on the App Store as a universal download for your iPhone and iPad for $1.99. There are no in-app purchases.