Developer Matthew Brown has crafted a set of brilliant puzzle games with the Hexcells series and it seems they're not entirely finished with them years after release.
The series has gone onto receive wide acclaim from other critics and users on Steam, with each game in the series having thousands of user reviews and a positive rating. So clearly Brown has done well here. If you've not played them: they're a series of ambient and relaxed logic puzzles. You could say it's a puzzle game in its purest form, with no bells and whistles and that's part of why it's so good.
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One thing has bugged me though, which is how god damn bright it is. Thankfully, not so much an issue now. Each in the series got a nice 2.0 version bump adding in new options like—a dark mode! Hooray! Now you can relax, solve some puzzles and not get eye-strain. The first two games also gained mid-level save states and cloud saves, with the third entry Infinite getting a hard mode for the level generator and level listings for custom puzzles.
Pictured: dark mode.
To top it off, all of Brown's puzzle games on Steam are on a massive sale at 70% off:
The Hexcells complete pack is also up on Humble Store with DRM-free copies but no sale there. I've yet to try Brown's other games but they're also on sale, see the dedicated Steam page here.
I have to admit, I had never played any of them until this week and I have now joined the ranks of the many who will happily sing its praises. Brown did a wonderful job crafting a set of great puzzle games here, that takes clear inspiration from some classics including Minesweeper while having their own unique brain-twisting added to the mix. Do take a look.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
apocalyptech Aug 20, 2020
And, not that I want to deflect attention from Hexcells itself, but if anyone liked the Hexcells series and was looking for more, I'd recommend Globesweeper: Hex Puzzler - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1121530/Globesweeper_Hex_Puzzler/ It's sort of "Hexcells But 3D," but also adds in a bunch of other mechanics not seen in any of the Hexcells game. (There's one instance of Globesweeper using a notation which is used in Hexcells for something completely different, which will take a bit of getting used to once you run into it, but it's easy enough to adjust.)
Quoting: apocalyptechAha, lovely! I've always loved these. Nice to see a new paint job on 'em! My one minor quibble is that the more-noticeable border on the area-effect hexes, which was in Infinite but not Plus, seems to be gone -- I'd sort of hoped that Plus would get a patch to support Infinite's style, but they seem to have standardized on Plus, instead. Well, we'll see if that ever gets tweaked to my liking. Looking forward to re-playing them, regardless.
And, not that I want to deflect attention from Hexcells itself, but if anyone liked the Hexcells series and was looking for more, I'd recommend Globesweeper: Hex Puzzler - https://store.steampowered.com/app/1121530/Globesweeper_Hex_Puzzler/ It's sort of "Hexcells But 3D," but also adds in a bunch of other mechanics not seen in any of the Hexcells game. (There's one instance of Globesweeper using a notation which is used in Hexcells for something completely different, which will take a bit of getting used to once you run into it, but it's easy enough to adjust.)
I have Globesweeper and I like it a lot. It does have a lot of complexity in shape and game options. So, I picked up the Hexcells bundle due to the similarity in puzzles and I'm enjoying it a lot. The clean UI is appealing in a logic game and, along with the dark them option, helps remove visual distractions on screen. So far, it's been a great experience and just shows how well some games age.
Last edited by randyl on 20 August 2020 at 9:09 pm UTC
no_information_here Aug 20, 2020
That said, Patterna was a good attempt. Quite clever. (Thanks also for the Globesweeper recommendation.)
I just wish we had more, way more level packs. The random generator never really created puzzles of the style I liked (big filled playing field, not a sparse lattice) and many community-created puzzles tried to introduce new contraints I wasn't really fond of. There as one set of community puzzle, "a giant helping of vanilla" or something that I liked, but there was only like 4 or so of those.
This is great.
For those who wants a harder challenge, I recommend Tametsi, which takes Hexcells to a whole new level.
It's harder, but one could say it's better ;)
Last edited by AciD on 21 August 2020 at 6:07 am UTC
I haven't played Globesweeper, Patterna or Tametsi, but I'll have to check them out (if they are available for Linux). Thanks for the recommendations.
Another similar game, that I've enjoyed a lot is Puzlogic:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/865220/Puzlogic/
It gets pretty difficult, and I haven't finished it yet, but I pick it up again every now and then.
Completed the normal and plus version, and although it sometimes is more about finding the right clue, there's some really clever logic to be found.
Recommended, even if not on sale :-)
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