Consonance takes psychedelic patterns, unusual geometric magic eye drawings, or moving vistas, and turns them into jigsaw puzzles that keep moving whilst you attempt to solve them. It’s done in a striking monochromatic colour palette and in a way that can ease players into the complexity of spatial and pattern recognition. Under the hypnotic hood is a beast for you to enjoy if it clicks.
One of the best things about Consonance is that the player can largely choose what kind of experience they’ll get. If you don’t like the monochrome visuals, you can choose your own two-tone colour palette. There is also a casual mode that slows down the movement of each puzzle, and whilst this won’t count towards unlocking more puzzles, it is a great way to ease players into spotting patterns. A puzzle can be carved up into a 2×2, 3×3, 4×4, 5×5, up to a 10×10 grid. Start small, learn the movement and patterns, and whilst each pattern is procedurally generated, they are done so around specific designs, so you’ll get used to looking for certain things. It might be a gloopy blob rolling around a zigzag pattern, a collection of falling wooden planks, a rainy mountain vista, or something more abstract. They’ll all be minimalist in design, but specific to their puzzle.
There is no time pressure in Consonance except for the pressure you put on yourself, as each puzzle and size saves your fastest completion time. The 2×2 grids can take a few seconds, but the 10×10 grids were taking me closer to half an hour to solve. There’s a lot of game here, with 37 puzzle designs and 8 sizes for each. The key gameplay mechanic to execute correctly is that you will be swapping pieces around. Consonance allows you to select multiple squares to swap and shift around, which is handy because sometimes you’ll have worked out a corner or edge, but nothing else. It is easy to select and move a group of blocks around, and that makes sorting and visually filtering things easier. A lot of the puzzles also screen wrap, and this caught me out continuously throughout my gameplay time. I’d shift blocks to a certain area, assuming that was the top or bottom of the image, only to find I was very wrong about five minutes later. Again, that’s where the multi-select tools shine.
I have little to critique Consonance on. What it sets out to do, it does very well. I did chuckle at the zen musical soundtrack attempting to calm my nerves. They’d already frayed as I went pixel hunting with a furrowed brow! My only complaint is something that is specific to me – swirling geometric shapes often make me queasy. I did find that playing longer than half an hour at a time would start off a small headache, so if you are someone who also gets motion sickness, utilise the mid-puzzle save features!
Consonance stands out with its striking visuals, unique moving jigsaw puzzle gimmick, and its options to ease you into the difficult road ahead. I think fans of the Glass Masquerade series would love this. They both have an oddly hypnotic and satisfying design that makes jigsaw puzzles ten times more fun. Enjoyable!
Review copy provided by the developer. Consonance is out on 19/11/25 on PC.
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