Indie steampunk puzzler released and determined to strain our brains.
We recently wrote an article about a new steampunk-flavoured puzzle game called Cogs. At the time, it was approaching release and the developers, Lazy 8 Studios, graciously gave us some copies to try out. It has been driving me to the edge of insanity ever since, thanks to its, at times, tricky content, firing up a degree of persistence that I normally avoid with such games.
The premise is simple – it is a sliding block puzzle game. At its most basic, there is a grid of blocks – some are blank, others contain bits of machinery like gears or piping. With only one free spot to play with, you need to slide the bits around and make the machine work. Early on, this is a simple case of lining up gears to ring a bell or piping steam into a balloon. But before you know it, the complexity ramps up, with the initially simple 2D plane abandoned for oftentimes intricate three-dimensional contraptions to power.
While it can often stretch one’s brain a bit, I’ve found it rewards persistence. It is rare that one feels backed into a corner by the puzzles, with backtracking and a bit of lateral thinking enough to entangle oneself from an increasingly obvious dead end. Completing puzzles in the main ‘inventors mode’ rewards points that unlock new puzzles. These points reward not only completion, but also minimising the number of moves and the time taken to arrive at a working contraption. What this allows for is enough of a backlog of points to build up so you’re rarely stuck with just a single new puzzle to play – perfect for a game where the occasional puzzle just doesn’t mesh with one’s current mental state.
Difficulty can, and does, breed frustration at times. I’ve been finding Cogs to be a game best taken in small doses – as a bit of mental exercise, rather than something I sit with for hours. That said, for an essentially simple concept, there is both depth and replay value – credit has to go to Lazy 8 for the fact I’m over halfway through the puzzles included yet I haven’t felt, at any point, I was going back over old territory. This clever evolution of intricacy has really impressed me about Cogs.
The game was officially released last night on Steam for $US9.99 and 100MB of downloading (you can find a demo here). It’s a pretty reasonable price to pay for a game that, while I’m not in a rush to finish, I can see myself coming back to over the coming weeks when I feel my brain needs a little exercise. Cogs is a simple concept that manages to deliver its fair share of fiendishly tricky moments. It has even managed to cure my secret Freecell addiction since it was installed, and that is a very long running love affair.
Supporting our habits:
Fresh confabulation