Survival mode, for example, is a straightforward case of trying to clear a single board. If you get that far, however, you're doing exceptionally well and deserve some sort of medal if fact, creating a cluster of three Black Pearls actually wins the whole game, but few souls in the world have managed that.įortunately, there are more straightforward ways to play Hexic than the awesome time-sink that is the Marathon mode. Creating a cluster of three Starflowers certainly helps, but arrange six of them in a Starflower arrangement and you create a Black Pearl - the holy grail of Hexic. Not only do you get a whopping points bonus for it, but the special piece that's left behind can be used to rotate all the pieces around it, making it possible to shift pieces in a completely different way.īuilding up from one Starflower, if you can somehow manipulate the board to make even more of them, the really big points become available. The key here is to become adept at making what's known as a 'Starflower', which is essentially gained by surrounding one hexagonal piece with pieces of another colour on all six sides. That's just showing off.ĭealing with bombs is one thing, but actually getting a decent score is something that'll probably elude most players entirely without serious practice. Failure is severe, with just one slip up resulting in the appearance of the dreaded Game Over screen. Given only a few turns to safely get rid of them, you have to swiftly and skilfully manoeuvre the bomb into a cluster of three - not always that straightforward once the number of different coloured tiles starts to increase later in the game. The first things that will almost certainly finish you off are the bombs that start appearing a few stages down the line. Sure enough, though, there's much more to Hexic than initially meets the eye, with the real challenge barely even apparent for some time. Sounds simple enough, and to begin with it feels like you'll succeed by moving practically any cluster on the board. Blessed with only the ability to rotate a cluster of three connected hexagonal tiles clockwise or anticlockwise, you must try and join up three tiles of the same colour to get them to hexagon heaven (most likely), with more tiles raining down from above to fill the void. No surprises there, but unlike the manic pop thrills of Bejeweled 2 or Zuma Deluxe, there's far more of a slow burn, strategic nature to it - probably more so than almost any other puzzler we've played.Īs the title suggests, this one's all about manipulating hexagons, which immediately lends completely different mechanics to the game than simple square-tile-swapping or bubble-popping.
#Hexic hd for pc free#
Sensibly, Microsoft offers free downloadable demos of the entire line-up, but in Hexic HD's case, it comes pre-installed for those of you who shelled out for the Premium pack, making this review less of a buyer's guide, and more of a straight discussion of the game itself.ĭesigned by Mr Tetris himself, Alexey Pajitnov, Hexic is yet another beautifully simple title rooted in the principles of matching three tiles of the same colour to remove them off the screen. Especially if they're good, which - let's be honest - most of the Live Arcade line-up is. For many of us, it was these qualities that got us into games in the first place, so it follows that getting back into games with a quick fix mentality was never going to be hard. The simple ability to just pick up and play a game and understand the rules, the control system and the concept in the first few seconds is an intoxicating feeling. Then the counter argument kicks in about how cheap these games are, their terrifyingly addictive qualities, and how the high score tables and Gamerscore points give an indefinable incentive to keep coming back to them.Īs many wise old farts point out in these moments of chin stroking pontification, they really don't make them like this anymore.
#Hexic hd for pc Pc#
As several people are quick to point out, not unreasonably, it's a bit odd to shell out all that money for a brand new next generation console and then spend tens of hours hooked on cheap retro titles - most of which have been available on the PC for yonks. You can't blame the general sense of incredulity that accompanies any discussion about the relative merits of the Xbox 360 Live Arcade.