Squarecells

Another Matthew Brown game, another few hours of puzzling. After playing through all the Hexcells games, I was happy to pick up another of Brown's puzzlers.

Squarecells is a logic puzzle game like Hexcells, but the cells are all square instead of hexagonal. Obvious, yes? That's pretty much where the obvious stuff ends, as each puzzle gets more complex with more limited starting information.

The game starts out easy and gets gradually more complex as you move through each of the 36 puzzles. (Arranged in a 6x6 square in the menu, of course.) Various types of clues - number of pattern cells in each row/column, number of connected pattern cells, separation between pattern cells in a row/column, and so on - show up as you move along. All the different types are combined in the tougher puzzles to make the player's life a little harder.

Brown believes in minimal UI design, and for the most part it works well. There's not a lot of options needed in this kind of game. But I did find myself wishing he'd included one option - different colors for cells once you've marked them as part of the pattern. That was the case in Hexcells, but in Squarecells the color stays the same with a small dot added in the upper right. Not nearly as much contrast, so that late in the larger puzzles I found myself doing a lot of squinting at the screen as I looked for which cells weren't yet marked. It's not a major flaw, just annoying.

I spent a happy few hours working through the puzzles in Squarecells. Well worth picking up for anyone who likes these kind of logic puzzle games.

Sokobond

I like puzzles of many different kinds, but I have to say there's something a bit more satisfying when the end result is something more than an abstract pattern. Sokobond uses chemistry to add flavor to its puzzles. Each puzzle uses atoms as pieces to create the end result of a molecule.

A beginning position...

The idea behind each Sokobond puzzle is to maneuver one atom around the puzzle grid, picking up other atoms along the way. Each atom has one to four bonds available: one for hydrogen, two for oxygen, three for nitrogen, and four for carbon - just like you may remember from chemistry class. Moving your atom next to another atom will bond the two, assuming both have open bonds.

Solving the puzzle means using all the atoms to form a molecule. It's rarely simple, but the puzzles are mostly small enough that there are a limited number of possible moves. Some trial and error is generally enough to overcome a position that has you stumped. Also, each puzzle has a name that provides a minor hint.

...and completed molecule.

A finished puzzle will display the name of the molecule that you just created, and a factoid about it. Those range from how it was discovered to how it's used to associated historical figures. Educational as well as fun!

The game starts you out with a limited set of simple puzzles, then opens up more complex problems as you proceed. Solving one puzzle opens up access to others, and at certain intervals new mechanics are added, such as the ability to split bonds or create double bonds.

The overview screen. Solving a puzzle reveals any adjacent unsolved puzzles.

The mechanics in Sokobond are pretty simple, and none of the individual puzzles are overly complex. I had fun working my way through them - and I'm not done yet, only about halfway through. The chemistry factoids are a nice little reward at the end of each puzzle, and I may have even learned a thing or two!

Hexcells

I like logic puzzle games. A side effect of being mathematically inclined, I suppose. When I first found Minesweeper, I spent way too much time poking at those little squares (and often blowing myself up). If Hexcells had existed back then, I might never have stopped.

The idea behind Hexcells is very simple. You've got a bunch of six-sided (thus the "hex") cells connected in some kind of pattern. Each cell can be unknown, empty, or full. The game provides you with various clues (number of full adjacent cells, how many full cells in a row, etc). Properly identify the status of all the cells as either empty or full to win.

As with all really good logic puzzles, that simple idea becomes fiendishly complex. Sometimes the patterns are huge, with dozens of cells and a ton of clues. One part of the pattern might be impossible until you've unraveled a different part. Sometimes the patterns are small, but every clue is interconnected, so finding even one cell status requires deep thought.

There are actually three Hexcells games, each of which comes with a good number of patterns to unravel. As you progress, you'll be introduced to new kinds of clues and more complicated patterns to solve. In the third game, Hexcells Infinite, there is also a random-pattern mode that can be played effectively forever (thus the "infinite").

In Hexcells, you're never stuck. (Unlike some similar games where sometimes you have to guess.) You might think you're stuck, but there's always enough information to figure out at least one of the remaining unknown cell statuses. That one leads to another, and another, and eventually you have them all. Whether you're smart enough to figure that out is another question, of course.

If logic puzzle games appeal to you, pick up Hexcells. Pick up all three, for that matter. You won't be disappointed.