Understand Reviews

8-? made me so happy i did not expect that

Now, before anyone comes at me with pitchforks and torches, I have to say this review is NOT me saying that [b] Understand [/b] is not a good game, in fact in many occasions I enjoyed my playthrough a lot, but rather me stating that I would not recommend the game to most players I know, or most of the people who play games in general. [h3] This review will be spoiler free and will just go over why I wouldn't recommend Understand to others [/h3] [h2] What is Understand about? [/h2] Understand is a puzzle game in which the player has to draw a continuous line on a grid, both of which will change in shape depending of the rules of each level. Now, here comes the interesting part, Understand doesn't tell you what those rules are, so the player has to work out - through either analysis or repeat-testing - what said rules are. [h2] Why I don't recommend it. [/h2] First of all, I'm not ashamed to admit that, for about 15% to 20% of the levels I needed help, I got stuck, I got too sucked into what I myself assumed were rules, or simply brute forced some stages to then find myself completely lost and unable to identify what the rules were. The formula mentioned above about having to figure out level rules is a double edged sword for me, because it's incredibly satisfying when you can figure out what the game expects of you in a timely and organic manner, but on instances where you reach a solution by luck, or progress some portion of a level through brute force and get stuck on higher stages, this same formula can become a source of frustration very quickly. When you reach the end stages of a level with what you assume are the correct rules for that level just to fail repeatedly, because you hadn't figured it out but your logic worked on smaller grids or you were simply lucky, and get stuck for very long periods of time looking at a grid that tells you very little, and go back and try to identify the rules again in early stages yet see nothing because you can only see what you had already identified as a rule that is now incorrect, it gets very frustating. It's also worth mentioning how rules can, in some instances, get quite crazy and unintuitive(I believe this is due to the combination of simplicity of the loop together with the high number of levels). [h2] Who would I recommend this game to? [/h2] First of all, no matter what I say above, if the game seems interesting just go for it, as stated before, I don't think this is a bad game by any means, just a game I wouldn't recommend to most people. Now, this game feels more like a cypher decryption game than a puzzle game in many instances, so anyone who enjoys cracking cyphers would get a recommendation from me. Also, anyone who is very patient, since unless seen very easily some levels will take a while to solve, revisiting, and watching a grid trying to identify some meaningful pattern. Lastly, people who don't feel guilt when searching tips or don't have a problem with not completing the game completely. I felt extremely dumb and guilty when searching tips for certain levels, yet for me it was better than being frustrated by spending hours not solving what seemed like impossible puzzles because the rules I myself assumed the level had were incorrect and I was too hard headed to see anything else. [h2] Closing thoughts [/h2] I know this review might feel like I'm complaining about the whole central feature of the game, but its rather me complaining about certain dynamics that are born from it that I believe most players (myself included) would end up finding frustrating. However, as I've said before, this game can be very fun as well, so I just hope this review isn't completely offputting if you were interested in it. Hope this review proved useful to some.

Currently halfway through the game. Actual playtime is 19 hours; I accidentally left game on in the background overnight. I like how individual puzzles are of medium difficulty and take about 15 minutes to solve, so I can play a puzzle during a short break. Chapters are independent of each other, you don't need to master one thing in order to progress. Level design is very elegant; I like how each chapter has the same number of puzzles and commits to its theme.