Capsule Review: Hexcells Infinite
The third of three games using a puzzle system somewhere between Minesweeper and Picross. Puzzles are presented on a hex grid with numeric clues that allow the player to deduce which cells must be colored in and which must be blanked out. The clues are a mix of Picross-like ones giving information about the cells in a row or column and Minesweeper-like ones giving information about the cells near another cell, but in both cases there’s some extra variation and complexity mixed in.
Definitely play the original first, and probably the second, as this one quickly rolls out all of the mechanics from both of its predecessors and the difficulty ramps up fast. In fact, the final handful of puzzles in this one were too much for me.
The interface and gameplay are mostly the same again with a couple of minor tweaks - most notably, there’s finally the ability to save your progress on a puzzle and return to it later. There are thirty six predesigned puzzles plus an “infinite” mode that generates new puzzles procedurally - I haven’t tried that myself, but the designed puzzles are just as well-crafted as in the previous two games.
I Stopped Playing When: After clearing most of the designed puzzles, the last handful were a bit too hard for me. I mostly play puzzle games to relax, and these were beyond my threshold of what I could relax with.
Three Stars: Good. I liked the game enough to finish it (or just play it a bunch, for games that don't end). I recommend it to most genre fans.