SpaceChem

[Gwardinen]

I heartily recommend trying SpaceChem, an indie "design-based puzzle game" with a demo on Steam now.

It has two layers that I know of so far, in the proper production levels you start with a macro view of a landscape with tanks of various molecules on one side and specific required molecules on the other, so you connect things up with pipes and reactors, basically figuring out which reactors are going to combine/split up which elements within the molecules to get the right end molecules.

The other layer is programming the reactors themselves - it's not as simple as saying "strip out oxygen and add carbon", you have to basically design a couple of interconnected assembly lines within the reactors to bond, debond, move around and submit atoms in order to get the right molecules into the output.

I apologise for this rather poor description of the game, but frankly the game itself doesn't make all that much sense until you play a couple of worlds into it. I can only say that everyone I have recommended it so far has found it at least intriguing, and it has a free demo after all, so why not give it a go?

[Octaeder]

I've been playing this lately and... it's an odd one.

It's good, for sure and there's something inherently satisfying about piecing together each logic puzzle. But I can definitely see a point in the not-to-distant future where I hit a skill wall and get completely stuck.

[thorn]

I've been playing this lately and... it's an odd one.

It's good, for sure and there's something inherently satisfying about piecing together each logic puzzle. But I can definitely see a point in the not-to-distant future where I hit a skill wall and get completely stuck.

Yeah, this is pretty much how I felt. Except that I predicted that I'd hit the skill wall and gave up in advance. It's fun, though, and definately worth a look.

Also, I initially thought that I was playing a training mode seperate to the story mode. Turns out that I was actually playing the story mode, but it's possible to completely ignore the story aspects and just play it as a puzzle game. Whilst this is a good thing, it makes me wonder why the hell they bothered writing the story at all.

[Gwardinen]

Also, I initially thought that I was playing a training mode seperate to the story mode. Turns out that I was actually playing the story mode, but it's possible to completely ignore the story aspects and just play it as a puzzle game. Whilst this is a good thing, it makes me wonder why the hell they bothered writing the story at all.

I sort of wondered that myself and mostly ignored the story, but I'm told by a friend who bought the full version that the story actually starts getting quite interesting. Then again he built his own Dalek, so what he finds interesting might differ substantially from the common opinion.

[Erkki]

Man, I thought the

Tentacle

defense mission was impossible until I remembered the manual controls, and had to rethink the macro design after already having implemented some reactors. Even then my pipeline got clogged at one point and I had to add additional controls to turn off Plutonium production completely at the earliest point. In the end it required very exact timing of switching the manual controls, but worked quite well.

That's half the game done, I think, and it's getting really difficult already.

[dibs]

I've been playing this on my pad the last few weeks. It is amazing. Even after spending around 4 hours over two days trying to solve a puzzle where i had misread the molecule size (trying to make outputs of size 39, 40 and 41 is a lot easier than 39, 40 and 102) i am still entirely in love with it. I have a few interface niggles, but nothing so far has dampened my enthuaism for seeing the next puzzle.

[riadsala]

+1 for Spacechem being a great game. I like that it's difficult... too many modern games are afraid to challenge the player and instead reduce puzzles to simplistic minigames.

[Security_Tubbs]

Probably my favourite puzzle game ever. I've gone through the entire campaign, but I have one optional mission I've never come around to finishing. It's one where you have to create several types of 4x4 (or larger, can't really remember) molecules. The DLC campaign that introduced the quantum-teleport thing is also pretty damn difficult.

I like how the puzzles are really goddamn hard, but the game system allows for different types of solutions. My solution to the very final level sort of made me proud. It was in no way optimal or sophisticated. On the contrary, one errant push of a button would've jammed the system and [RETRACTED]. But in the end, it worked.

[subbes]

I was reminded of this game and tried the demo and i'm really bad at this

[dibs]

Stick at it, or look up a solution or two online. Once it twigs you will be loving it.

I didn't like the demo either as it was too difficult for me, but once I figured out the systems in a second tryout I loved it.