Quick Review: Hook

Not the film starring Robin Williams; not even remotely affiliated with it. This is a game of hook, line, and sinker… but mostly hooks.

That's nothing compared to what comes afterwards.

Developed by Maciej Targoni and Wojciech Wasiak, and published to Steam by the former on January 25th, 2015, Hook is a puzzle game in which you reel back various hooks at the end of intertwining lines. Like any good puzzle game, it starts out easy enough; some practice at first, by showing the basics, then you’re thrown into increasingly complex setups. After the firstlevels, you're shown crooked hooks, intertwining hooks, hooks tied together that get reeled at the same time. Then you get intersections that can be switched around... Your task by this point is to complete a circuit from hook to reel, then reel in – always on the condition that the hook isn’t blocked, of course. And it only gets tougher from there. How crazy does it get? Here’s a look at some of the final levels…

…Yep.

The first level featuring intersections...

To the game’s credit, it follows the rule of progressive difficulty to a T, so you’re never thrown into new mechanics blind – you always get to learn about them first in simpler puzzles, then see them implemented into puzzles that increase in difficulty. The last couple levels involve following every single possible path to make sure you’re only reeling in the hooks you can properly reel in, and none of the ones that are blocked. The last levels are so tough that instead of starting over from scratch after only one mistake, as was the case up to that point, you’re given three “lives”, thus two chances to screw up before you’re forced to start over. The last levels can get pretty long and tedious as a result, as many of them involve long, complex pathways as well as some mental visualization and a lot of trial and error.

...and it gets progressively harder as you go on.

However, overall, it’s pretty great exercise for your brain. It’s fun, simple, short and sweet (it may have 50 levels, but you can complete them all in a little more than an hour if you know what you’re doing). It costs only 1$, but that’s great quality for the price.

Here’s a fun drinking game, take a sip for every time I use the word “hook” and “reel” in this quickie review. A message to your liver: I am so, so sorry.