Preserve is a relaxing ecosystem-building puzzle game. There are a variety of gameplay modes to choose from, offering players everything from stress-free creative play to challenging weekly contests where they can compete with other players worldwide for the top of the scoreboard. The game offers a cozy escape into nature.
A Variety of Ways to Play the Game
In Preserve, players build biomes, placing plants and animals on a hex-based map to unlock additional cards and map segments by increasing their score. A quick tutorial is available to introduce the basics of gameplay and scoring. Then players can choose a biome: Continental, Savanna, Marine or Jurassic. In each biome, they play either Classic Mode or Puzzle Mode. Classic mode allows players to unlock more cards and map blocks by reaching score benchmarks. In Puzzle mode, there are no additional cards or map blocks available. To progress to the next level of the puzzle, players must reach the target score with the provided map and cards.
In addition to the Classic and Puzzle modes, Creative mode allows players to freely mix and match biomes and animal placements without concern about earning points. There are minimal constraints on building in this mode, allowing for sessions of stress-free creativity.
There is a weekly challenge, similar in style to classic mode, where players compete for the highest point total on a worldwide scoreboard. There is also a friends tab on the scoreboard to easily track which of your friends have the scores to beat each week.
Cozy Graphics and Soundscape
Deceptively simple graphics with touches of detail bring the environments and animals to life. The soundscape is peaceful, with animal sounds interspersed in the soothing soundtrack. The game feels cozy and relaxing. Even when the puzzles are challenging, the gameplay has an overall sense of calm.
The only issue I had with the graphics and/or UI was that I turned on the day/night cycle in my initial settings run-through, not realizing how dark it would (quickly) get while I was playing the tutorial. My options appeared to be: turn off the night cycle or wait it out. Turning it off left me in the dark, and since I was mid-tutorial, I didn’t know my way around yet. I waited until sunrise and turned off the day/night cycle setting.
Shiny Things
- Relaxing feel
- Variety of game modes
- Photo mode for screenshots
Not Shiny Things
- Got stuck in night mode during tutorial
Love this Cozy Addition to my Library
When it comes down to it, I find Preserve to be a terrific addition to my library. It ticks so many boxes of things I love in games: cozy/relaxing, puzzles, pleasant soundscape, pretty art style/graphics, nature/environmentally focused, variety of challenge difficulties, high amount of player choice in gameplay… It’s just a great addition to my game collection. I recommend Preserve to anyone looking for a game in one or more of those categories.
Game key was provided for review purposes
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