The gameplay is very easy to learn, and the interface is intuitive. You are presented with an isometric view of the loading dock and the ship. You click on the arrow keys to move the crane, then left-click on the crane icon to lift the cargo below. Then you can rotate the cargo by right-clicking it, move the crane over to the ship, and click on the crane icon again to release it. Different types of cargo not only have different shapes, but also different weights. You must therefore balance the load on the boat to keep it balanced at the end. If the cargo in the back weighs more than the front, then the side-view picture of the ship at the bottom of the screen will show a tilt, and you must make adjustments. A top-down diagram and the picture scale help you see the overall layout of the ship, and how much each unit of cargo weighs.

There are dozens of levels categorized into three difficulty groups: easy, medium, and hard. You can go for any of them at any time, but you must play levels within each group in order. In the easy levels, your role is a menial worker in the ancient world tasked with loading merchandise onto a small boat. In these levels, the cargo is usually small-sized, i.e. either 1x1 or 2x2, and you don't need to rotate them very often. The medium levels make you into a soldier who must load different types of army units (infantry, horses, cannons, etc.) onto a medieval-style ship. The cargo units are bigger and have more varied shapes and weights. Lastly, the difficult levels cast you as a modern-day engineer who must load different pipe segments onto a big freighter. Now you must rotate almost every segment, and balance everything very carefully.

If you enjoy brainteasers, Vira will keep you entertained for hours with its unique and interesting premise, smooth execution, and pleasant graphics. The game is in Russian, but there is very little text to get in the way of gameplay. All in all, another wonderful puzzler from a country famous for them. Two thumbs up, way up!