I’ve been in a puzzle game recently – or all of last year, in fact. The calm and methodical solution to fake problems is just what I need while I’m stuck at home listening to podcasts. The most recent is Hexceed, a minefield-like hexagon clicker that is free to play on Steam.
Each puzzle starts with a blank hexagon board, with a pre-marked title safe to click. You mark the pieces as safe by left clicking on them, which will reveal a number. As in Minesweeper, the number indicates the number of adjacent tiles that are “dangerous”. You mark a dangerous tile by right clicking. A puzzle is solved when all the pieces have been identified correctly.
There is a wonderful rhythm to this, even in its most basic puzzles. I think I sometimes need to pause to examine the board while trying to see what is the next available move, but once I find it, there are usually four or five obvious moves to make immediately afterwards. I love this feeling of saying “Ah, I’m stuck”, which gives rise to a wave of activities when I identify a large strip of territory without thinking.
I’ve never been in prison for long, but the puzzles have twists and complications. The tiles can be divided by walls that prevent a numbered tile from reflecting the danger that may be on the other side. Some blocks show the total number of dangerous blocks in a marked region or an entire line. You learn to gather this information very quickly as well.
Although the puzzles are relatively easy to complete so far, they still take some time, and there are many. I’ve been playing for three hours and I’m almost done with the tutorial island, which contains 46 levels. After that, there are 360 more levels to play for free.
If I’m even more hungry then This one, its developers are releasing monthly DLCs with new levels. Each DLC will cost $ 1 / £ 0.79, and during the first year they plan to introduce four new mechanics for new levels to use. You can also purchase a Year 1 Pass for $ 9 / £ 6.19 which will unlock the first year DLC as soon as it is released.
I don’t know yet if I’m going to play long enough to start spending money, but I spend a few pounds every month on New York Times crossword puzzle packs and bought enough Picross games at Nintendo eshop to find out what’s possible.