Neat idea, poorly executed – Shards of Memories: an Art Puzzle Adventure Review

This puzzle game reveals a story, line by line, as you complete puzzles (visual form puzzles, not mental puzzles). The idea of that is intriguing to me, semi-reminiscent of games like Everybody's Gone To The Rapture, and Its different enough from other games on the App Store that I bought it despite not having any other reviews to check beforehand. I made it through two chapters before I quite and deleted it. The only reason I made it that far is because I'd paid for it and wanted something for my money. The story's intended purpose is to make you want to finish the next puzzle to uncover the next piece of the story; unfortunately the story itself is poorly written, there are numerous shifts between present and past tense, the pacing is clunky, and rather than being intriguing the narrator's vagueness is simply frustrating, so after just a few lines it's clear the story is not enough to pull one through the game. The story would be forgivable if the puzzles were good in their own right, but they are numbingly boring. To be fair, each puzzle is the shape of loosely story related item (for example an umbrella when the narrator states he's glad it's not raining) with a blurry, similarly loosely related picture in the background, which is neat, but again poorly done and not exciting enough to make me want to keep playing despite the story. It's essentially two boring things mashed into one boring thing. It's a one-star game, honestly, but I like the idea of it so I added another.
Review by Rskrenger on Shards of Memories: an Art Puzzle Adventure.