A beautiful-looking and soothing short puzzle game that must be played by puzzle game fans.
Type: Single-player
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Michal Pawlowski
Publisher: Hamster On Coke Games
Release date: 13 Apr, 2016
Intro
I didn’t expect Zenge to be a puzzle game at a first. I was booting up the game and expecting to play an adventure game because of its beautiful-looking images, but the game tells me otherwise. I know it’s my fault for not checking the game properly. Did I regret it though? Not at all.
Graphics
The menu is simple, yet beautiful. Most functionalities are simplified with icons and they didn’t confuse me at all despite the use of an uncommon symbol. The images that are shown after you complete each puzzle also look simple, yet beautiful at the same time that it feels rewarding to solve every level.
Story
You might not realize that there is a story at first glance. You’ll be given a beautiful-looking image after you solve every level and it turns out that you can make a story out of them. There isn’t any text nor dialogues in the images though so everything that happens is up to your interpretation. To be honest, it’s hard for me to make out the story although it feels satisfying to look at the images as a whole after you finish all levels, especially when it was accompanied by the soothing music.
The Game
Mechanics
The gameplay reminds me of Hook where you have to put some blocks to certain spots by moving them over a line. However, you have to make sure that the block you were moving didn’t hit other blocks in the process. Although it was simple at first, it’ll be more challenging as time goes, especially after it introduces more additional mechanics. Strangely, it took me longer than I expected to understand one of the mechanics.
One thing that I liked about this game was that you can always check where to put the blocks by clicking on them. The levels will be more complicated later on and finding the right spot on your own will take time. It’s also hard to see the spots at some levels since the lines are a bit dim, so a little help is always welcomed.
Length and Difficulty
The game is very short – I finished all 70 levels at 1.4h. The levels are not that hard to solve although some of the later levels are complicated and I was burned out to solve them in one sitting. It feels rewarding to solve each level though because the game will show a beautiful-looking image later on. The soothing music that accompanies you when you are solving the puzzle also makes the game more enjoyable.
Specs
Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650
Verdict
I didn’t expect that I’ll enjoy the game this much. The soothing music fits whenever you are solving the puzzles or looking at the images. I felt more immersed in the game as I finished each puzzle. I wish there are more levels, but I don’t mind with the current length. If you like to play a relaxing puzzle game, buy this game.
