Game Play: Soul Trapper (iPhone)

I would love to recommend this game. It's basically an audio adventure title, replacing the basics of classic text adventure/Choose Your Own Adventure with audio clips. The writing seems pretty decent, as is the voice acting and the sound effects are really pretty damn good.

The gameplay itself needs another round in the cooker, though. On the second chapter, I was first intrigued by the "heart puzzle", where you are listening to the sound of your heart and try to control by pressing a single button. It's quirky, unique and potentially the kind of immersion that would really sell this kind of story.

Problem was - ten minutes later I'm still just listening to the stupid heart. I had no idea what I was or was not doing correctly. No clue as to how close I was to potentially solving the puzzle. Worse, when I backed out of the chapter - the game forgot I had completed the first chapter. So if I want to get back into the game, I'm starting from scratch (thankfully it was only the second chapter that tripped me up).

The game could benefit from a demo so that players could see if this kind of thing is for them. I appreciate where this game wants to go, but at $7 my experience with it doesn't really lend to a recommendation.