Quick Review: Hexoscope

Sorting out chaotic messes? For some it’s an occupation, for some it’s fun.

Looks simple enough for a starter.

Developed by Studio Binokle, published by Sometimes You and released on August 10th, 2016, Hexoscope is a puzzle game with a deceptively simple base concept that leads to interesting challenges. The starting idea involves connecting a Source to a Receiver, in a similar manner to an electrical circuit. You are given a board of hexagonal pieces (“Chips”) containing parts of paths, and must swap them around to create a complete path.

Okay yeah, now that's getting tricky.

The chips that make up the path from the Source light up pink, while any available around them light up blue. You can use the blue chips to add to the path, or change the path by swapping a pink with a blue, or maybe even with another pink. However, the blue chips do not “unlock” permanently when they’re made available; they’re still tied to the pink ones, so cutting off the path will turn those chips black again. Therefore, the challenge here is all about figuring out which path to use, which hexagons will be needed, and how to get to those.

There is thus an element of resource management on top of the whole “creating order out of chaos” statement from the game. Things only get trickier over time as we get levels with multiple chains to create (though, on the plus side, both can help each other grow), and new “chaos” requirements through which you now need more than one pink chip around a dimmed one to light it blue and make it usable. The third set further complicates matters with fixed hexagons that you cannot move at all, and must therefore work around.

Okay, yeah. This one is besting me.

Decent concept, executed well and looking pretty nice, with a chill ambiance aided by music. There’s a fair bit of content here for someone interested: Six packs of twelve levels, for a total of 72. All six have their first stage available from the start, so you can have a taste of the later difficulty. The one odd thing with this one is that when you start a level, the position of the chips is randomized. And shuffled again if you choose to start the level over. This can make the actual difficulty vary wildly at times. I don’t know if it makes levels outright unbeatable per se – I doubt it, personally – but it might influence the challenge. And offers an easy way out if you’ve gotten yourself stuck in the current puzzle. You can also choose to undo any number of previous turns, or see the objective again.

For this one I can't even use the middle lane?
Damn, okay... gonna need workarounds, then.

It’s unique, clever, challenging and rewarding, only requires the mouse for controls, and it gets pretty tough as more requirements get piled on. It’s a plus that you actually have all of the packs open from the get-go, so you can try out later parts if you so wish. That said, it’s pretty much the same throughout, from #1 to #72, so repetitiveness is its greatest issue. Since it’s randomized, there’s also no hint system to help you out of a pickle. You’ll either grow addicted to it or let go of it relatively fast. I’m in the latter category; not a bad game, but it didn’t keep my interest.

Hexoscope is available on Steam for 2.99$ USD.