Cosmic Express

A good game of puzzles is like a magic number in close-up: everything is under our eyes, everything seems clear and extremely simple, but yet it looks completely impossible. It annoys us and it obsesses us, then we find the "trick", and then we feel an incredible satisfaction by wondering "but why didn't I see it sooner?". Cosmic Express is part of the good puzzle games, which is hardly surprising considering that its author is Alan Hazelden, who had already achieved the excellent Sokobond which I said the greatest good in another evaluation steam. The concept of cosmic Express is very simple: one must draw on the screen the course of a train so that passengers of a certain color can each join a destination of the same color, knowing that the train has fixed points of entry and exit and that (except for exception) its Rails can not cross. Of course, cosmic express gradually adds other mechanics, like passengers who "mark" the car in which they ride and make it impassable by passengers of other colors, or destinations that can accommodate any type of passenger, but the game remains very stripped and very simple appearance for the bulk of its 128 levels, which of course increases our perplexity when the solution of these levels escapes us. In this respect, we find the talent of the author, some levels being brilliant. However, as a big fan of puzzle games, I confess to having reservations: the game is simple, but maybe too simple: many levels are quite easy (I've beaten a lot of the first shot, even in advanced galaxies), and most importantly, they all look alike, leaving the impression of constantly doing the same thing always applying the same principles-says otherwise, on the 128 levels, there is a lot of "fat". Another problem: by its very concept, cosmic Express is less thrilling than Sokobond for example-in Sokobond, we move something on the screen and we interact with the puzzle, we learn so much through manipulation, while in cosmic Express, we remain above all motionless in front of his screen to scrutinized the puzzle, which is not much fun. Cumulatively with the problem of "filling" the game, it results in sessions too laborous which are saturated fast enough: we see that the game was first thought for very short sessions nibbled on Smartphone. Finally, the very last levels of the game are content to increase their difficulty by Combinatorial (always bigger puzzles with always more elements), and as for two tribes's RUSH for example, it makes them frankly boring. I may be a little cosmic Express because before I played it I would go out of Sokobond and especially Stephen's sausage roll, which in my opinion is not only the best puzzle game of all time but also one of the best video games in history , but the fact is that these two games are better than cosmic Express. I still recommend cosmic Express because it remains of high quality, but in a similar genre I prefer him distinctly Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the move [simbabbad.blogspot.com] for example, much more varied and interesting and proposing several different modes. (my time spent on the game is much less than what says steam, I usually let some games run in windowed mode by doing something else)