Developer Mark Ffrench has carved out one thing of a novel area of interest on Steam, usually releasing fill-a-pix logic puzzle video games of huge scale and shocking depth. Amongst others in 2024 there was Proverbs, a wall-sized puzzle based mostly on Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s portray Netherlandish Proverbs, and 2024: Mosaic Retrospective, which contained dozens of interlocking photographs recalling main occasions from the entire 12 months. Following Mosaic of the Pharaohs earlier this 12 months, we now have probably the most elaborate entry but: Mosaic of the Strange—a recreation that mixes the identical logic puzzle conceit with a pixelated point-n-click journey.
Proper, describing a logic puzzle is at all times probably the most stultifying and joy-destroying course of, so please bear with me for a second earlier than we get again to the enjoyable stuff:
To get everybody on the identical web page, fill-a-pix is among the many logic puzzle varieties to come back from puzzle maestros Conceptis, the place you fill in a grid based mostly on Minesweeper guidelines. Every quantity within the grid signifies the variety of cells that needs to be shaded within the three-by-three grid of which it sits within the heart. So, a “6” on the facet of a puzzle means all six cells are shaded, whereas a “0” within the center means you possibly can get rid of its 9 cells from any overlapping clues. The extra you play, the extra acquainted you turn into with sure patterns, equivalent to the implications of getting a “6” and a “3” in two adjoining cells (you must shade the three cells to the left of the 6, and get rid of the three to the correct of the three), and so many extra moreover. RIGHT, OK, WE’RE DONE.
The way in which Ffrench implements that is by creating huge mosaics which can be segmented into particular person puzzles, and rewarding completion of most with little pop-up info. In Proverbs it was particulars on every of the proverbs depicted within the huge portray. In 2024 it was particulars of the occasions of that 12 months. However in Mosaic of the Unusual, it’s all reasonably completely different. The small print that pop up are paperwork, principally about conspiratorial mysteries, as a result of on this recreation you’re taking part in as FBI brokers investigating a homicide.
Brokers Cullen and Brady are referred to as in after a physique is present in grotesque situation, with the circumstances of the person’s loss of life a crazed muddle of mysteries. And reasonably than fixing a number of puzzles on a single wall, right here the method of finishing the grids is the way you’re exploring the gadgets within the rooms. OK, sure, it’s spurious. You’re not truly taking part in a point-n-click within the sense that you just’re truly deducing something, however with every merchandise solved you acquire a doc pertaining to a peculiar topic, maybe cryptids or UFOs or mysterious disappearances from lonely lighthouses, which all add as much as proof to stay up on the pinboard in your workplace. You additionally go to the coroner, the homicide sufferer’s house, and elsewhere, with a complete of 144 puzzles and paperwork to search out.
Varied gadgets immediate conversations between the characters, which makes what would in any other case be a extra sterile puzzle recreation really feel far more alive and in-depth, and the result’s one thing absorbing each in narrative and in puzzling. Ffrench has nailed the best way wherein he delivers the challenges, with good, context-sensitive hints if you’d like them, and a immediate that can pop up for those who’ve gone too horribly improper with out noticing. Additionally, on this recreation, you possibly can vastly change the issue of the puzzles in a approach that I like.
You can also make issues so easy that you just’re mainly portray by numbers, or in increments make it so difficult that each puzzle is a head-scratching ordeal on the dimensions of Tametsi. I’ve principally settled on one notch down from the latter, nevertheless it’s enjoyable to scale it as much as the toughest level and actually must scour for each super-complex sample of numbers. Even higher, you possibly can change that problem at any level, halfway via fixing any grid.
OK, I utterly nerded on the market, however belief me, you’ve by no means performed something like Mosaic of the Strange, and also you’ll get hours of leisure to your $12. I can’t wait to see what Ffrench does subsequent, particularly if these video games proceed to evolve of their present course.
