I have to admit, despite having a PSVR2 since launch, I don’t really think I’ve had a definitive VR experience as yet. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had great fun with a raft of rhythm games, and they are a ton of fun (shout out to Beat Saber, Synth Riders, Ragnarock in particular), but I’ve not really spent anytime with a more structured / narrative type game (despite owning several). Enter Tin Hearts.

It’s been less than two weeks since developer Rogue Sun announced that a free VR update would be available imminently for both PC VR and PSVR2, and I’ve just put down my headset on my first proper completion of a non-rhythm game, and I have some thoughts I want to share. Super short version, I loved it.

A (Tin) Heart is not judged by how much you love but by how much you are loved by others.

Tin Hearts passed me by for some reason when it released early last year, so I didn’t know much about it going in. I knew it was a puzzle-tastic game with little toy soldiers, akin to Lemmings; these toy soldiers would march in line, and you were tasked with directing them to their goal and keeping them safe.

And this is essentially the games core, but, oh boy, is there more to it than that. You see, Tin Hearts has a story to it, and let me tell you, it isn’t a narrative for the sake of it. It’s a fully-fleshed out, heartfelt, and at times, devastatingly emotive experience. A story about family, tragedy, priorities in life and The story takes place in a Victorian-era time period where the Butterworth’s reside. In an idyllic home, father, and mastermind Inventor, Albert, wife Helen and daughter Rose all seem to have the perfect lives. Though, this doesn’t last when Helen receives some bad medical news which significantly shifts the tone and motivations in the Butterworth household.

Told through a series of letters scattered through the game’s levels, as well as cutscenes, the honest-to-goodness rollercoaster that the Butterworth family goes through wasn’t something I was expecting. The game’s complexity shifts and twists alongside the story, and you see elements of the impact of the story strewn across the detailed range over over 50 levels. The second half of the campaign really focuses on Albert and I thought it was fascinating to see the mood of Albert almost reflected in the progression of the story and the evolution of his creations you encounter throughout the game.

No spoilers, as I want you to go experience it for yourself, but the final act (Act IV)genuinely brought tears to my eyes. It might be the impact of being ‘in the room’ with the characters but there’s a particular scene towards the end of the game where you stood in one of the rooms with Albert as he pens letters to various family members, and the execution of that scene was harrowing, humbling and *chef’s kiss.

“I’m in control, motherf*****, do you understand?”

So what about actually playing the game? Thankfully, you’ll be pleased to read that, on the whole, Tin Hearts works incredibly well in VR. I will caveat that I’ve not played the standard console versions so I don’t have a frame of reference for preference.

The game’s tutorial does a great job of introducing you to the basics of the game, allowing you to use your PSVR2 Sense controllers to grab blocks triangular shaped and move them around to allow your toy soldiers to be directed the right ways. This starts of with a more structured ‘get the right shape in the hole’ concept to give you the feel for the game, but this soon opens up blocks that can be positioned anywhere in the map to control the direction of your little dudes. There’s also a mechanic in later levels that frees one of your soldiers from their mindless wondering, and allows you to go ‘off-road’ to reach ‘off the beaten track’ routes to solving puzzles.

It’s isn’t too long before the game lets you control and interact with blocks from afar (feeling a bit like a Jedi in the process). As you progress, more and more variables are added to the game to build the complexity of the types of puzzles you’ll be encountering. Balloon machines to take your soldiers big gaps, windmills that help direct said balloonatics, along with a raft of increasingly sinister hazards all need to be considered when your planning your moves. The learning curve is pretty spot on, interesting new mechanics gradually then implementing them in a way that doesn’t make the game overly difficult. I’d put money on you having to spend a moment thinking about how you get past that sinister Jack-in-a-Box (seriously) or mechanical arachnid (don’t worry there’s an arachnophobia setting). Especially because you don’t want anything to befall your wonderfully loveable soldiers right…right?!

A really helpful time mechanic allows you to reverse time, fast forward and completely pause the action to give you some breathing space so you never feel overly pressured by the happenings in the game. This will be essential, I often found myself pausing to survey the area scratch my head and think about what the heck I was doing.

Actually moving around took some getting used to, you use the circle and triangle button to turn you around and change height (with an additional up and down motion with the controllers), and the left stick to navigate. Given my novice status in terms of VR play, I did spend the first couple of sessions playing feeling a touch nauseous an hour or two into playing. Thankfully, through playing the game I seem to have built up a tolerance now (woohoo!). In fact, I do think they work well. You can opt to ‘teleport’ across the levels, but I preferred to move more like a first-person shooter, felt a bit more intuitive. The only gripes I had with the controls was when you had to position some of the interactable items, such as the cannons (used to activate out of reach switches / knock down barriers in your way), and toy trains. The cursor that you had to direct was a bit finicky in terms of accurately placing where you wanted it to go, whereas interacting with the windmills had you control them using the right thumbstick which was smooth and easy to do every time.

Look with your eyes, and your hands!

Visually, Tin Hearts looks great. The little toy soldiers have got a cheeky smile and are incredibly cute. A few times I found myself leaning forward to get a good luck at them, and all the detail in their character models.

The levels themselves look great too, I think I preferred the mechancial look of some of the later levels compared to the earlier rooms around the house, but they all have their charm, incorporating elements of the environment into the level design. You’ll travel from the attic, into the main house, our into the garden, down to the subterranean lair (or basement for the less dramatic). Some of the later levels are impressive, if not a bit daunting, to look at.

There’s a lot going on and the game, generally handles it all really well. There were a couple of later levels, when there was a lot going on all at once, did the game suffer some significant slow down performance wise (one in particular in Act III made me feel a bit unwell, it was very juddery). Though I’m glad to say this was the exception rather than the rule.

The sound design is spot on too. The machinations of the different machines you encounter all sound really satisfying and there are helpful sound cues along the way too. The voice acting from the main cast bring the characters to life, and in particular Christopher Tester, voice of Albert Butterworth, does a great job. The music is really on point, scored by Matthew Chastney and realised by the Tin Hearts band, the game is soundtracked with a wonderfully calming and ambient mood, perfect for when you’re trying to use that extra brain power to solve a puzzle.

In terms of Trophies, the game has a good mix of challenges to keep you playing past the main campaign, ensuring you save all the soldiers you can, complete the acts using a low number of hints (I didn’t use any, he says proudly) as well as finding the hidden chickens in most of the levels and giving them a kick (a nod to Fable?). Though some do seem buggy / glitched, there’s been a couple that haven’t unlocked when I met the conditions (I even watched the credits twice to get the post-credit scene and it still didn’t pop).

If words come from the heart, they will enter the heart. If they come from the tongue, they will not pass beyond the ears.

I can easily, and happily, recommend Tin Hearts on PSVR2. It’s a brilliant experience, bar a couple of hiccups, with a thoughtful and well-performed narrative, great visuals and sound design, and a challenging, but never ridiculous game of puzzles. If the story doesn’t touch you, maybe you’re the one with the Tin Heart. Dismissed!

Reviewed on PSVR2 (also available on PC VR). Thanks to Wired Productions for the review code.

Available on non-VR platforms too: Xbox Series S | X, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.