Clockwork Review: Enjoyable Puzzle-Platformer

Gamesoft’s Clockwork has finally been released onto Steam and those who supported the game during its time in Greenlight should be pleased with the final result. This puzzle-platformer sends players on an adventure through Watchtower, the steampunk city of the far future.

Players control Atto, a robot who repairs broken mechanical equipment as he and the spirit of his watch explore the city; Milli is the spirit of the watch and has just woken up in the strange city with a mission that drives the two forwards through the city. The plot is nothing amazing but the story is still interesting and expands nicely as the game progresses.

The puzzles in the game are based around time-manipulation and become increasingly difficult, and many require players to be incredibly precise with their timings; most levels in the game do not have checkpoints so dying or failing a portion of the puzzle means that the player needs to start again from the beginning.

Boss levels work in a slightly different way; they are very fast paced with time-based puzzles which can be difficult to complete. Checkpoints are common in boss levels as they are much longer than the others in the game. They are not particularly action-heavy but a certainly fast-paced and frantic.

Clockwork looks great and features attractive hand-drawn graphics but the animations are a little rough; they are often much longer than needed and transitioning can look strange at times. Audio-wise, the game is solid despite the characters only having one line of audio each for their dialogue.

Fans of the puzzle-platform genre should enjoy Clockwork despite its minor annoyances; the unusual time-manipulation abilities help to make this game stand out in the genre and allows for some unique puzzles. It does have its problems, however, and the time-based puzzles could be enough to turn some potential players away.

The game is available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Steam, iOS and Android.

Watch the official launch trailer below: