Hexic

Hexic is best described as a fun little puzzler that is good for killing spare time between other events and activities. In Hexic, your goal is to move sets of three hexagons so that each hexagon in the set matches up with three or more hexagons of its corresponding color. When you do this the matched hexagons disappear, the hexagons that were above them fall to fill the empty space, and an appropriate number of new hexagons is generated and fall down on top of the pile. Hexagons generated when making a match are random, which means they can be any color or hexagon type, including power ups. Power ups give you extra points when you match them with hexagons of the appropriate color, as well as allow for the possibility of making a lot more hexagons disappear than just what you are matching when you make a match. It is also possible to wind up with a bomb. Bombs are the games way of killing you off, and appear at random in place of one of the new hexagons you generate when making a match. They drop down with a random color and number. Their number is how many moves you have to match the bomb up with two or more hexagons of its color before it detonates, killing you and bringing an end to the game. As you make matches and generate points, you will advance in level. Each level requires a certain number of matches in order to complete it. Once you reach that number of matches, you advance to the next stage, which requires an even greater number of matches in order to advance beyond it. There really isn’t anything more to Hexic than this. You simply match hexagons for points and new gems, and it’s surprisingly fun.

The game runs in a windowed mode, and performs very well with little to no slow down. The controls are straightforward point and click via the mouse, and the graphics are very colorful. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the games music, which is really more an assortment of sounds than anything, and feels pretty tacked on and last minute. As soon as you load up Hexic you will see it’s very much inspired by other big name puzzlers such as Bejeweled. Sadly, while the game is quite fun and challenging, and supports a variety of different game modes and difficulty settings for each one, it’s not nearly as fun or addicting as the puzzlers that inspired it. This is mostly due to an overall lack of polish that leaves the game feeling rather dull and plastic despite how well it presents itself. Also, for whatever reason, luck plays more into the equation of this game than logic does. For instance, about half the time a bomb drops it drops in a color that is not even remotely close to the hexagons of its same color. This is really frustrating because most of the time it means you can’t do anything with the bomb when it drops. So, you are left to make other matches around the bomb in hope that the two or more of the appropriately colored hexagons you need will be generated close enough together, so you can match them with the bomb to diffuse it and keep playing. This really hurts the games lasting appeal, making it an unlikely candidate for marathon play sessions. However, it’s not enough to hurt the fun of playing in a short time span. This makes Hexic an ideal title to keep you occupied while waiting for other more important things to arrive, such as the end of your shift on a slow Friday afternoon.