Stack & Crack

It’s been a long time since I’ve played a minimalist puzzle game that has stretched the limits of my ability to solve something. I’ve both enjoyed and dreaded the puzzles that lay ahead of me here, and it’s really an experience I didn’t expect. This is actually a good thing, because I’ve been able to see a level of personality the puzzle designers have, which are delicately tucked into some of the trickier conundrums. There’s actually a puzzle which features a red herring, which essentially means it’s a decoy thrown in that has no use whatsoever, it’s simply there to confuse you. In a puzzle game, this is a unique feature I haven’t seen in a while. Usually there’s a blockage that’s put into a puzzle that has to be conquered for you to progress; but this is not always the case in Stack and Crack. For that reason, and a few others, I’m pleased with the way this game has unfolded. At the time of writing this review, I’m only about halfway through the gam...

Nice puzzle game which lasted me a good 4.5h. In each of the first 7 parts of the game, a new element of gameplay is introduced. You have between 10 and 15 levels to learn how it works and interacts with the other ones. The 8th and last part of the game feels like a treat: nothing is new, you just have 13 more levels to have fun with. In other words, the level design was good. I was only wondering a few times why some elements were there, because I did not use them at all: it was probably due to levels having multiple solutions. The very last level was brilliant: it took me quite some time to solve it, but I really enjoyed the thought process of getting to the solution. The look and feel of the game is a perfect fit for the genre: the visuals are beautiful but clear, the interface does not go in your way, and the ambiant music is great to focus on the puzzles. Overall, a solid game. Bonus point for working flawlessly on Linux-based systems.

https://youtu.be/faUuNh-swJM?si=9rYwHO59wUV2rdw7