Line Loops - Logic Puzzles Reviews

[u]In short:[/u] Line Loops is a barely adequate puzzle game building on Slitherlink's rules but with its own twist. Sadly that twist is lack of information, making most levels open-endend with multiple solutions and few forced moves. While I would have preferred more hard-logic and while the UI is in dire need of improvements, the absolute boatload of content (1485 pre-made levels, daily levels, infinite mode) and the incredibly cheap price make this an easy recommendation (check out the bundle), especially if you don't plan on 100%ing it. [u]In long:[/u] This is based on the popular hard-logic puzzle Slitherlink by Nikoli (basic rules can be found on [url=https://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/slitherlink/]their webiste[/url]). There's a board of squares, some squares contain numbers denoting how many edges of the square you're supposed to draw, and your end goal is to fill the board satisfying all clues with a single unbroken loop. In terms of [b][u]gameplay[/u][/b] Line Loops uses all the same basic mechanics, but it is very much not a clone. For starters not all moves are forced; levels usually have multiple valid solutions. If you expect a hard-logic puzzle in the vein of Slitherlink you will be very disappointed (I certainly was at first), but if you're looking for a different spin on the same mechanics, Line Loops might be interesting to you. Clues are usually clustered in several areas with blank space inbetween. While these clusters can often be solved in differnt ways, not all solutions fit together with the other clusters. So it's a bit more free-form, more open-ended where you'll eventually develop an intuition how parts might fit together, instead of just algorithmically working through all the clues. Compared to purer logic puzzles I found it hard to enter a flow state with Line Loops - something will inevitably throw you off and you'll have to rework parts with different solutions. The [b][u]content[/u][/b] is organized in 33 level packs totalling 1485 pre-made levels of 6 difficulty categories, impacting board size and clue abundance with some inconsistency. Even within the same level pack sometimes you get really tricky and frustratingly vague stages followed by straight-forward levels with lots of forced moves. Over-all the difficulty curve is fairly gentle though, starting with several hundred small and easy boards. You unlock level packs with meta-currency, so you can skip ahead if you'd like. There are two general gimmicks - irregular board shapes (rarely used, but I like them) and pre-built edges (not my favorite but definitely increase difficulty). Beyond that, 9 of the level packs follow the "Revealed" ruleset where every single tile carries a clue. Now this is more like Slitherlink, and there's actually only 1 forced solution. I really liked these levels, but they are small and easy, and not very elegant (a clue on every tile is way more information than logically needed). The 4 packs of "Hidden" ruleset on the other hand are the absolute worst aspect of the game. Clues are invisible, until you draw an edge next to them. Who ever thought "I need less visually clear information and more surprises in my logic game"? This is just misguided garbage forcing you to draw senseless lines all over the board just to reveal all clues. Having a decent solution and then hitting an invisible zero is just pure frustration - I absolutely hated it. After a few hundred levels you unlock dailies, giving you 4 stages of different difficulties each day. After one thousand solved levels you unlock Infinity Mode which unfortunately has zero controls to it. It just generates a random puzzle of one of the higher difficulties. You cannot choose to play easy stages and relax. With the difficulty as spotty as it is, they felt very much like filler content to get the achievement for 2000 levels played and they weren't very enjoyable to me. Be prepared to liberally use hints on some of the more frustrating layouts. The [b][u]UI[/u][/b] is unfortunately a big weak-point of Line Loops - definitely worse than most other Slitherlink implementations I've seen. Once you are more familiar with the fairly finnicky interaction points, drawing a line works decently, but "undrawing" a line has never worked for me reliably. Part of the problem is that it's all one mouse button, there is no separation between a "mark" and a "delete" action. There is also no general undo-functionaly, neither a button nor a hotkey. More often than not I found myself having to click on every single line piece to unmark it. For reasons beyond me there's also no way to mark "non-edges" to visually simplify larger puzzles. Each time you open the game the level list starts at the top with the Tutorial levels and it scrolls very slowly using the mouse wheel. The level select menu keeps your scroll position between packs, so if you pick up a half-finished pack mid-way, the next pack puts you mid-way with all the locked levels too. The counter for Infinity Mode does not work and shows shows "TT_Next" on the button to advance a level. Clues with the number 1 change size if you mark and unmark them. Just so many weird UI quirks hitting home the lack of polish. There's three different meta-currencies you earn for completing levels: Stars to unlock new level packs, Lightbulbs to spend on hints, Crowns for a meaningless highscore. Two of these have zero impact and for the third I think limiting the number of hints is an awful design decision. If you play Infinity Mode long enough (thousands of levels) you can eventually run out of hints and be forced to play awful underclued levels. Still, the hint system (plopping down 1 correct edge per lightbulb spent) turned out to be surprisingly helpful. When I got stuck 1-3 hints would on average get me back on track. The [b][u]presentation[/u][/b] is functional. Look at the store screenshots, that's as good as it's gonna get visually. Not really any kind of well-designed minimalism, but I also don't expect too much from a 2D puzzle game. The background music is a suitably low-key ambient track that doesn't get annoying. I really didn't like the victory fanfare for beaten levels though. It felt out of place and jarring. The [b][u]technical aspects[/u][/b] are adequate. Apart from the mentioned UI problems I don't recall any gameplay bugs or crashes. The settings feature separate volume silders for music and sound effects (good!) and a language selection for text. The graphical settings are a bit above average (resolution drop down, fullscreen toggle, texture quality, anti-aliasing). There are no accesibility settings (colour-blind, etc). In [b][u]conclusion[/u][/b] this game is a fresh take on the Slitherlink ruleset. Unfortunately I much prefer the original (on Steam I can recommend [url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/931090/Slither_Link/]this implementation[/url]). The incomplete clues made solving these still feel like a chore after hundreds of levels, when on other games I've long switched to recognizing patterns intuitively. So this is maybe not a game to play for hours on end, more to dip in, solve a handful of levels and return after a few hours. The gimmicks are lackluster, the UI is lacking polish and usablity functions. I would say "the developer tried" giving their own spin on the formula, but they definitely didn't strike gold here. Still, it's an adquate puzzle game if you can temper your expectations. The vasts amount of content (pre-made or generated) at an incredibly cheap price still make this a fairly easy recommendation. While it's over-all not outstanding, it's more than adequate for the price it's being sold at. I can wholeheartedly recommend the "Patterns & Logic Bundle". AuroraBound Deluxe is not super great, Line Loops is somewhere in the middle, and Aurora Hex is pretty good.