[table]
[tr]
[th]GOAL[/th]
[td]Flip two adjacent colored tiles next to each other in a square grid whenever there's a connect match-3 or more tiles of the same color, and making sure there's no colored tile left on the board to finish the level.[/td]
[/tr]
[th]EXPERIENCE[/th]
[td]Tangibly related to playing countless match-3 games, more specifically, connect match-3 games, but otherwise, this seems like a unique puzzle game to play.[/td]
[tr]
[th]SETUP[/th]
[td]Played it windowless fullscreen with audio default to on.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th]CONTENT[/th]
[td]174 handcrafted main content puzzle levels under 'Puzzles' section.
The 'Daily' section consists of 6 days available worth of content to play, with 6 randomly generated puzzle levels per day, with 6 new levels arriving, and 6 oldest levels leaving.
The 'Infinite' section when playing either the relaxed or hard variant, consists 5 by 5 square grid where the tiles have 3 layers of colors, with said colors can't be in the layers twice in a row, and it's endless until there's no more moves left; the relaxed variant has less colored tile types, and hard variant has more colored tile types.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th]BOUGHT[/th]
[td]Bought it on 2023 December 26 during the Steam Winter sale for 1.99$ while it had a 60% discount, which the game is currently 4.99$ if not discounted as of this review.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th]ENDGAME[/th]
[td]Getting the 'Infinite' Steam achievement, getting a best score of 100 or more in hard infinite mode.[/td]
[/tr]
[tr]
[th]PLAYTIME[/th]
[td]396.5 minutes (or 6.6083 hours) so far playing the game.[list][*]298.5 minutes (or 4.975 hours) spent on the main set of levels
[*]8 minutes spent on a daily puzzle set to get the 'Daily' Steam achievement,
[*]5 minutes spent on the relaxed infinite mode, and
[*]85 minutes so far spent on the hard infinite mode to try and get the 'Infinite' Steam achievement.[/list]Playstyle consists of going through the levels in a linear order without skipping them through the 'Unlock all' option, and without looking up solutions online, with 10 to 30 minutes per session.[/td]
[/tr]
[/table]
[h3]MY POSITIVES[/h3]
[list]
[*] [b][u]New obstacles or game mechanics are introduced that keeps the core game mechanic of flipping two colored tiles fresh, and often combines with other existing game mechanics.[/u][/b][/list]
[h3]MY NEGATIVES[/h3]
[list]
[*] [b][u]There's no redo action while playing the main levels and daily levels;[/u][/b] this would be helpful if accidentally undoing a move, or wanting to plan out another way to solve the levels without having to redo manually.
[*] [b][u]There's no number to keep track of the amount of finished levels from dailies, or even finished days from dailies;[/u][/b] why does the infinite mode (both relaxed and hard variants) keep track of the best score, but not for the amount of levels or days finished? Sure, I can just record it manually, but it would feel good for the game to acknowledge or have the number recorded.
[*] [b][u]The diagonal tiles and 'linked' tiles added from a game update don't appear to be incorporated in the daily mode levels;[/u][/b] checking the 6 days of available content, I don't see them from a quick checking of the given levels, which I was kinda looking forward to playing those kinds of randomly generated puzzles that would use those.
[*] [b][u]There's no additional Steam achievements relating to doing daily puzzles besides the 'Daily' Steam achievement;[/u][/b] it would be nice to get acknowledged on doing multiple days worth of content instead of just 1 day being on the same day with new 6 randomly generated levels released.
[/list]
[h3]MY EEHS/NEUTRAL FEELINGS[/h3]
[list]
[*] [b][u]The relaxed infinite mode and hard infinite mode are more luck-based than skill-based;[/u][/b] having mixed feelings, I really appreciate this has an endless mode for those who enjoy this type of game mechanic and wanted a score-oriented type of mode, but it feels like even when trying my best, the furthest I got on infinite hard mode is 55.
[*] [b][u]There's no dark mode to change the overall colors that isn't the colored tiles from white to grey or black;[/u][/b] while I didn't really have a problem playing the game the whole way through at all, one of my friends who played this game pointed it out that it might be a issue for them.
[/list]
Dissembler is a pretty chill puzzle game to think through, as there were some difficult level in-between the more easier levels, with the second last level being the most difficult of them all, taking about an hour for me to finish it without looking up the solution online. It's just what I needed to take a break from playing a larger game, to be able to tackle smaller games and finish them in less time.
Checking around the game's internet presence, they have their own [url=https://www.dissembler-game.com/]website[/url], and besides seeing an itch.io version, there's a mobile version on both [url=https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ianmaclarty.dissembler]Android[/url] and [url=https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dissembler/id1293516048]Apple iOS[/url], both of which cost upfront money to play the game on devices and not free-to-play. Curiously, there's a similar game by the same developer on Apple iOS called [url=https://apps.apple.com/us/app/tile-snap/id1480185176]Tile Snap[/url], which unlike Dissembler on Apple iOS, is free-to-play, but from checking on non-developer YouTube videos, it seems while there's a lot of levels, 6 levels per section, there's no additional obstacle tiles.
I'm not sure if the mobile versions of the game came first, or the Steam version first, but it's nice to see these types of games on Steam instead of being trapped only on mobile seeing that I can play Dissembler. This is despite the smaller issues I encountered that I'm disappointed, mainly on the lack of tracking the amount of puzzles or days finished on the 'Daily' section in the game, and the lack of newer obstacle tiles that would've been used for the random puzzle generation for the 'Daily' levels, I'd say it's a nice game recommendation to mentally munch about. I'll have to come back to this game at some point, if only to try and get that 'Infinite' Steam achievement of getting a best score of 100 in hard infinite mode.
