Color Party

Hours played at review time, across 40 reviews with recorded playtime.

[quote]Follow my Curator page, [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41363546-Fruit-N-Doggie-Reviews/]Fruit N Doggie Reviews,[/url] so you can be updated whenever I post a new review.[/quote] [h1]Overall Rating - Unplayable Trash ☆☆☆☆☆[/h1] [h1]First Impressions[/h1] Although it's in my inventory, I don't remember how I obtained my copy of Color Party (CP). However, as I was recently looking through my puzzle games for something light and easy to play, this seemed to be a suitable choice for the mood I was in. That is, until I checked out the store page and saw how horrible its review scores were. All the more reason for me to play it sooner than later, honestly, so I decided to see what all the commotion was about. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] Despite not using playing cards, the basic tile images used function like a deck of cards in a game of solitaire. They're lain out across a larger playing field, and the pieces that are blinking are next to another piece that don't have a single matching color in it. You'll have to rearrange how those pieces are set up on the playing field so that no such conflict remains, with no limits regarding how many turns it takes or a scoring system. Aside from the size of the playing field or the type of imagery selected for the tiles, there are no other mechanics or modes in the game. It's solitaire with no flair. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2630818286 [h1]Controls[/h1] When I watched the trailer, I was confused why the person playing was so slow to move the pieces around, as I thought there were plenty of obvious moves they could make. It's only when I tried the game for myself that I understood what the problem is. Any piece you select cannot simply be moved to any empty square available, or swapped with another piece. Instead, it can only move to an adjacent square that's empty, which is an unnecessary encumbrance. On the smaller puzzles it's not quite as annoying, but with this limitation only slowing you down instead of making the solution harder to arrive at, there's no good reason for CP to play this way. Plus, once a piece is selected, there's no way to deselect it, so you can accidentally move it when you're only wanting to cancel your control of that piece and move on to the next. [h1]Story[/h1] CP is solely a puzzle game, with no story elements whatsoever. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2630818945 [h1]Visuals[/h1] Honestly, I don't even care for how the game looks. The title screen, menu, and font don't create a good first impression, as it doesn't only have the appearance of an amateur, indie game, but of a rushed job. All of the tile images strewn across the screen don't look very good due to how spurious and random they are. There's no rhyme, reason, or theming for the various objects jumbled together. Even if the art quality weren't to change, a more cohesive framework for the pictures would make more sense of this mish-mosh. This is how things like coloring books are packaged, and those do well for themselves. [h1]Sound Design[/h1] I wasn't able to find any footage for this game on YouTube, so I had to check back in the game myself to see what the music was like. From exiting out of a puzzle and loading a new one a handful of times, I found out that there's more than one song in the game, with the credits indicating there should be five of them. If I had to describe the music, it's perhaps a bit more energetic and funky than you might expect for calming background noise. However, with the swirl of colors shown on the title page, I think it fits that aesthetic decently. Unfortunately, the tone used for moving pieces is quite loud, and there's no options available to mute that so you can enjoy the music peacefully. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2630821057 [h1]Pros[/h1] 🌟 The individuals who composed the music did a decent job. 🌟 I didn't notice any bugs or glaring problems in the game. [h1]Cons[/h1] ❌ Before you even have a chance to think things out, moving one of the blinking pieces somewhere else so you have more space in that area will inadvertently resolve the problem. Unless there are pieces stuck in a corner, meaning you have to dig through to them by moving other pieces out of the way, moving pieces around haphazardly will take care of it. ❌ Although the game only costs $1, it's not even worth that much. [h1]Tips[/h1] 🔍 Focus on the stuck pieces first by making a route to them. There's no reason to solve other pieces that'll just get in the way later. 🔍 With most puzzles solving themselves or needing very little effort, I can't offer much more advice. It's that easy. [h1]Final Thoughts[/h1] I think one of the worst signs I've ever seen from a game is after I completed the first stage and earned 16 achievements all at once. All that I'd accomplished is finishing a stage with certain pieces included in it, which is a really pointless thing to care about in a puzzle game. By repeatedly solving puzzles, I was able to earn all 95 achievements in under 20 minutes, having accomplished nothing meaningful and not being remotely entertained. Although the premise of sorting pieces by color wasn't an exhilarating idea, I thought it could still have enough merit to make me think situations out and engage my mind. However, I'd have better luck taking the $1 needed for this game and buying a word search book instead. There's no reason to get or play CP. [table] [tr] [th]PC Specs[/th] [th]Performance[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Ryzen 2700 RTX 2070 16GB RAM ADATA SSD 1920x1080 [/td] [td]The game ran without incident on default settings. 💖 - CP is healthy. [/td] [/tr] [/table]