Play it on: Home windows (Steam Deck YMMV)
Present purpose: Cease enjoying Hexcells day by day
Again in September I waxed on concerning the virtues of the Hexcells trilogy, riveting logic puzzlers of the best high quality. Then I ended up replaying all three, doubling my Steam playtimes. Upon resurfacing final week, I knew these cells, beautiful as they had been, had been practically spent. I wanted one other supply of mind ticklers par excellence, however whence? There exist actually hundreds of unknown puzzle video games to find, and few would slake my particular thirst. The place to even begin?
This was bizarre. I’m…not used to having no concept what to play.
Perhaps Steam’s discovery options may assist. Hexcells Infinite was tagged “Informal” and “Logic” so I filtered with these, after which sorted by common ranking. Aha. There was Infinite ranked at quantity seven, with a number of Zachtronics video games above. Slightly below? 14 Minesweeper Variants. Sure, that’s the sport’s title. Unbelievable critiques, $6.99. Purchased it. One reviewer wrote, “The subsequent logical step if Hexcells and Tametsi are amongst your favourite puzzlers.” Tametwhat? Seemed it up. “Overwhelmingly Constructive,” $2.99. Purchased that too, and returned to my newly expanded hoard to evaluate the spoils.
I’m solely about two and a half hours into Tametsi so it’s nonetheless busy unfurling its intricacies, however I can already verify, it certain has ‘em. And a few fantastic puzzle designs as effectively. Its deduction-driven, hazard-marking gameplay is definitely slightly extra Minesweeper-y than was Hexcells’, however it retains my beloved’s dedication to logic above all: Zero guessing is required. In the event you don’t know which cells to clear subsequent, it’s since you gotta look tougher, making use of an ever-expanding vary of logical lenses to the emotionless grid that confronts you.
Tametsi, fortunately, is strictly what I used to be looking for. (No pun supposed.)
Only one criticism to this point: The sport principally has programmer artwork, and possibly three sound results. I by no means realized how a lot Hexcells’ engaging minimalist visuals and droning, ambient musicality helped it go down properly, however I sorely miss these right here. Dangerous graphics might be wonderful, however generally the newbie appearances of Tametsi’s busy, color-clashing puzzles really impair simple comprehension. It might be fascinating to see what a graphic designer may do to scrub that up so the sport’s presentation lived as much as its design.
A much bigger subject, maybe, is that frequent Kotaku visitor editor John “Botherer” Walker has seemingly identified about Tametsi for years and by no means “bothered” to inform me. You suppose an individual… — Alexandra Corridor