Lines

Overall, this game has not gotten enough attention in the form of reviews, so here's my take: A good, casual puzzle game, with numerous levels and modes to test your skills. It feels like a mobile port (maybe it is - I haven't bothered to look into it), but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Menu navigation could be better, but that's the only complaint in that regard. The game's core elements are not without their faults, however, and while I do recommend giving it a go, I must point these faults out. In Lines, you try to fill in more of the lines on the screen than the other colors. You do this by taking more space, blocking others, or simply eliminating them altogether. There are tons of levels, all of which offer different challenges and sometimes slightly different strategies to solve. The game is broken down into categories of different actions you take to solve the puzzles: Add a point, remove a point, connect some lines, cut a line, then all of the above combined. The game does well in teaching you how each mechanic works with basic example puzzles up front in each segment. Eventually you get to slightly more complicated arrangements and there you have it. There are a number of short- and long-term achievements to be had, and there's a daily challenge puzzle that you can attempt once per day. This formula is really good at keeping one engaged. That is, until you hit one of the garbage levels on which the RNGods feel like spiting you. Some levels, even in the middle of segments, can be done in your sleep repeatedly, which makes getting some of the achievements (i.e. 100 wins in a row) less rewarding, while others might take 10-20 tries before you finally get one win out of it. The level structures themselves are sometimes to blame, and that's good for the challenge, I'd say. But the randomness of dot placement is the real impediment to having fun on some of these. When you are on a streak of 20+ and suddenly all your points are surrounded, leaving most of the game board free for the other colors to control, it's quite disheartening. The only way to win in some cases is to just not play and move on to another puzzle, so as not to frustrate you into oblivion. The good news is, there are so many levels, that even deciding never to play a handful to avoid their stress, there's still a ton of others to try. As well, the randomness of the levels, while increasing the replayability of every level, does detract from the skill/enjoyment in solving the puzzle. Sometimes you solve the puzzle just because you had really good luck in placement. Other times, you lose just because you had really bad luck in placement. As I've already mentioned, there are a number of achievements, some of which come easily as you progress through the game, others require a bit of time investment to unlock. Great. I wonder, though, why there's no 100% completion for, say, getting a gold medal on every level? The medal system basically only exists to give yourself a reference for how much you have completed, but there's no real reward there. I think the devs missed the mark on that, but it doesn't affect gameplay, so eh.

A lot of simple puzzles. Semi-relaxing. You may have to play all 500 puzzles about 6 times to get 100% achievements. Every puzzle takes a few seconds.

-Quantity over quality. -Too easy. You are very often given an extra move that you do not need, taking the challenge out of the puzzle. +Cool unique puzzle mechanics. +Beautiful art style. +Great audio design, music reacts to things happening in the gameplay. +I feel very relaxed :)

The idea behind this game is interesting and somewhat fun, but not enjoyable enough to warrant the expected level of play. Clearing the 500 levels will probably take ~5 hours tops, and then if you want to complete the achievements, you'll spend hours on end mindlessly replaying the levels to complete incredibly engaging achievements such as 'place 1000 points', 'cut 1000 lines', 'reach a distance of 10000 travelled' and so on... even though there's only ~100 levels per mechanic. I don't get why developers add mindless accumulation achievements like these.

[b]8/10[/b] [h1]Kurzweilig, ästhetisch und sehr intuitiv...[/h1] ...nur insgesamt vielleicht etwas zu viel Inhalt. Aber allemal sehr unterhaltsam. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] In Lines muss der Spieler es schaffen, eine vorgegebene Farbe den längsten Weg aller Farben laufen zu lassen. Vom Trailer allein ist eins nicht ganz deutlich: es handelt sich um die Farbe des jeweiligen Level“Rahmens“ (wechselt jedesmal). Verschiedene (und verschiedenfarbige) Punkte sind vorgegeben, und sobald man der aktuellen Mechanik entsprechend alles gesetzt hat, geht’s los: Alle Farben starten gleichzeitig und in Konkurrenz zueinander. Man versucht, im Vorfeld die Entfernungen abzuschätzen und vorauszusehen, wo sich die eigene Farbe zuerst durchsetzen kann und anderen den Weg abschneidet. Jetzt mal zu den unterschiedlichen Mechaniken. Es gibt fünf verschiedene. 1. Punkt: man setzt einen oder mehrere Punkte der eigenen Farbe an beliebiger Position 2. Messer: man schneidet den gegnerischen Punkten wortwörtlich den Weg ab 3. Seil: man verbindet Laufwege, um abzukürzen 4. Löscher: gegnerische Punkte werden entfernt 5. Portal: man kürzt per “Teleportation“ den eigenen Weg augenblicklich ab (ohne Abkürzungswege gehen zu müssen)   Die Mechaniken sind unterschiedlich zugänglich und unterhaltsam. Während ich bei 1. das beste Gefühl von Freiheit hatte, ist bei 3. oft nicht viel Sinnvolles möglich. Der Schwierigkeitsgrad bewegt sich im Bereich einfach bis gehobenes mittel, niemals wirklich schwer. Und wenn, dann klappt’s im zweiten oder spätestens dritten Anlauf. Relativ oft ist man sicher, dass es klappen wird; manchmal sind die Levels richtig doof-einfach; selten hat’s mal knapp nicht funktioniert und man muss beim nächsten Mal wenige Millimeter nachjustieren. [h1]Das Schöne an Lines[/h1] Mal ganz abgesehen davon, dass es einfach hübsch aussieht, wie die unterschiedlichen Farben das Liniennetz füllen, macht die Mechanik einfach Spaß. Lines kann sich weder wirklich Puzzlespiel, aber auch nicht Geschicklichkeitsspiel nennen. Es ist keins davon und wieder etwas von beidem. Es bietet entspanntes Spielen. Man schätzt per Augenmaß und Bauchgefühl, wie die Farben so laufen werden. Dann kommt der doch recht spannende Moment des Farbrennens. Und wenn’s nicht klappt, hat man aus seiner Ersttaktik gelernt und macht es beim nächsten Mal besser. Frust kommt einfach nicht auf – liegt aber auch daran, dass wenige Levels wirklich so fies sind, dass sie gar nicht gut durchschaubar wären. [h1]Umfang[/h1] Jede der fünf Mechaniken bietet 75 Levels, und danach folgen noch einmal 125 im Mix Modus (alle Mechaniken kommen vor). Sind wir also bei 500 Levels + tägliche Herausforderungen und ein Endlos-Modus ... das ist eine ganze Menge. Dann wäre da sogar noch ein Workshop, der es aber aktuell (nach sechs Jahren) nicht über insgesamt 72 Einträge hinausgeschafft hat. Wer möchte, kann sich noch an alle möglichen und unmöglichen Errungenschaften ranmachen. Da gibt es dann irgendwann so schlimme Sachen wie “100 mal in Folge ein Level gewinnen“. Diese Errungenschaft rührt daher, dass die Entwickler nach eigener Aussage für jedes Level die KI etliche Startkonstellationen haben errechnen lassen und sich dann die “100 besten“ rausgesucht haben. Bis man ein Level geschafft hat (in 95% der Fälle gelingt das auf Anhieb), spielt man die gleiche Konstellation. Hat man es geschafft, bekommt man Bronze. Spielt man es dann nochmal, kommt die nächsten Konstellation und man erhält Silber, beim dritten Mal Gold. [h1]Technik[/h1] Lines ist natürlich sehr minimalistisch. Die Optik ist schlicht, aber schön, die Musik besteht auch nur aus ein paar Klaviertönen. Die Navigation durchs Menü ist etwas gewöhnungsbedürftig. Es gibt einen schönen Nachtmodus. [h1]Kritik[/h1] Da hab ich eigentlich nur eine: Lines ist an der Schwelle zu “zu umfangreich“. Diese Empfindung ist natürlich subjektiv, aber ich denke man kann sagen, dass 500 Levels und Errungenschaften mit “100x in Folge ein Level gewinnen“ etwas zu viel des Guten sind. Nach ein paar Stunden ermüdet sich das Spiel und es hätte ein wenig übersichtlicher ausfallen können, z.B. mit 50 Levels pro Mechanik und mit einer Errungenschaft, die bei einer 20er oder 25er Siegesserie reinkommt, das reicht doch völlig. Wer will denn 93 mal siegen und dann macht’s ein Fail kaputt? Da fang ich doch gar nicht erst an. Mein Beileid an die Achievement Hunter. Es reicht ja schon, dass man für alle Level in Gold mindestens(!) 3 x 500 Levels spielen müsste. Das sollte man besser direkt zu Beginn machen, denn wenn man sie einmal kennt, möchte man sie vermutlich nicht nochmal durchkauen. Wenn ich aber bedenke, dass 1 x 500 Levels schon irgendwann nicht mehr so spannend sind... Eine kleine Kritik noch: es gibt keinen Reset-Button, man muss raus und wieder rein, um ein Level neu zu starten. Nicht ganz optimal und sollte eigentlich Standard sein. [h1]Fazit[/h1] Ich habe Lines in ca. 11 Stunden durchgespielt. Viel Stoff für das kleine Geld, aber 7-8h hätten auch gereicht. Möchte man wirklich alle Errungenschaften haben, verdreifacht sich vermutlich die Zeit. Ermüdend... Auf jeden Fall aber ist es eine ästhetisch-entspannte Spielerfahrung, die ich empfehlen möchte.

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[table] [tr] [th]GOAL[/th] [td]Ensure your color covers more line territory than the enemy colors with the supplied tools in each level.[/td] [/tr] [th]EXPERIENCE[/th] [td]Played puzzle games in general, but this is a one of a kind! Played the iOS version when it was pricedropped to free temporarily at one point years ago.[/td] [tr] [th]SETUP[/th] [td]Played it in windowed mode.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]CONTENT[/th] [td]500 built-in levels made by the developers, separated into 6 level packs, with Point, Eraser, Rope, Knife, and Portal mode having 75 levels each, and Mixed mode having 125 levels. The first 5 level packs introduce a unique tool that the levels are designed around, while Mixed mode has remixed levels from previous packs but also new levels of which there are 2 or more tool types instead of 1 tool type. There is a special game mode called Infinite, a endless score attack mode that uses all of the built-in levels on obtaining the highest win streak.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]BOUGHT[/th] [td]Got it for $1.69 during a sale on the 2021 Steam Summer sale.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]ENDGAME[/th] [td]Getting the final Steam achievement, 'Marathon', covering a 10,000 meter distance across all attempts while playing.[/td] [/tr] [tr] [th]PLAYTIME[/th] [td]1,504.5 minutes overall, or 25.075 hours upon completing the game on getting all Steam achievements. The time spent on the level editor is excluded, but had 9 hours making usermade levels and uploading them as of this review. [list] [*] Getting all gold on Point mode for 119.5 minutes. [*] Getting all gold on Knife mode for 107.5 minutes. [*] Getting all gold on Rope mode for 122 minutes. [*] Getting all gold on Eraser mode for 91 minutes. [*] Getting all gold on Portal mode for 79 minutes. [*] Mix mode for 73 minutes. [*] Post-game, getting all gold on Mix mode for 172.5 minutes. [*] Most of the remaining Steam achievements, they are in order: 'Daytripper', 'The big 50', '100!', 'Epic Fail' and 'Frequent Flyer' for 124 minutes. [*] The final Steam achievement, 'Marathon', while playing Infinite mode for fun for 426 minutes.[/list][/td] [/tr] [/table] [b]My positives[/b] [list] [*] [b]There's a dark theme mode option, to switch from the default light theme mode[/b]; personally used this predominantly while playing! [*] [b]The game has a built-in tracking system on each level, including custom levels, on having the amount of wins, losses, plays, and even the win streak; this also applies to the win percentage of 6 level packs.[/b] [*] [b]Usermade levels can be created and uploaded to the Steam Workshop for other people to share and play![/b] [*] [b]The colorblind setting of applying distinct shapes on the colored dots is good not only for colorblind people, but for people having difficulty distinguishing two or more similar colors in a level.[/b][/list] [b]My negatives[/b] [list] [*] [b]Sometimes failing a level is due to a mix of luck and difficulty on finding a viable solution;[/b] personally, level 27 in Point mode, and level 51 in Rope mode were my biggest pain points for me. [*] [b]There's no easy percentage of the ratio between wins and losses on each level the game keeps track of;[/b] the statistics are there, but no auto-converting percentage wise. [*] [b]While using the level editor, the game crashes at random regardless of simplicity or complexity;[/b] even with saving of in-progress level work, when saving something while having a reference image, that upon reloading it, only the reference image isn't saved. Likely, I just start over because it's too tedious to realign the reference image to the set up lines. [*] [b]There's no way to delete in-progress user level files during the game[/b]; can't find a way to delete them outside of the game as far as I know. While a minor nitpick, sometimes I wanna have a clean slate when I don't need to check those usermade levels I made anymore when I already uploaded them. [*] [b]The level editor gets more laggy the more line nodes are added in a in-progress usermade level;[/b] one of the things I wanted to do is to make kinda complicated line art that would take time to think about and plan with the given tools in order to finish the levels deviated from the built-in levels, but sadly, the game starts to lag with more line nodes added, with mouse clicks and drags taking longer to respond. [*] [b]Usermade levels take longer to load when wanting to play them compared to the built-in provided levels made by the developers;[/b] To test this, I recreated 30th level in the Mix mode, 'Traffic', the re-created usermade level still takes time to load, whereas playing the built-in level instead loads with no delay. My educated guess is that custom levels are handled differently from built-in levels when finding a valid solution, varying the amount of time. This is unfortunate when wanting to make or play usermade levels, that even levels similar to what the developers made, it still results in variable loading times. This most likely explains the relative low amount of usermade levels since game release, since as of this review, 72 usermade levels, of which I uploaded 12 of them. [*] [b]Usermade levels are less likely to be played due to a lack of special mode for them compared to built-in levels which has the Infinite mode;[/b] I played Infinite mode to get the 'Marathon' Steam achievement without downloading a usermade level to speed up the process, and there has been a lack of usermade levels during the mode since I downloaded some of them through subscribing. Incase the usermade levels exclusion from Infinite mode is intentional, I feel there should some kind of special mode for the usermade levels. I don't think a Infinite mode for usermade levels would work if the point of Infinite mode is getting the highest win streak from a grab bag of 500 built-in levels, since people can just inflate their best scores for a hypothetical special mode by just playing easy levels.[/list] [b]My eehs/neutral feelings[/b] [list] [*] [b]I have no opinion on the Twitch integration functionality, and whether it works or not, since I am not a Twitch streamer.[/b] [*] [b]Certain colors for the dots will change when using either the default light theme mode or dark theme mode;[/b] in the default light theme mode, dots that are colored black remain black, while in dark theme mode, dots that are colored black are instead colored white. This is something you'll have to plan around when making new usermade levels.[/list] Lines is a unique take on the puzzle genre on with the given tools for each level, to plan out a solution to ensure your color covers more than the enemy colors. I enjoyed it for the most part despite the various caveats in terms of usermade level creation and playing, which was one of the main reasons why I bought the game years ago on wanting to play and make more levels. I do wish there were updates regarding making usermade levels less of a hassle and more fulfilling, since that's one of the main differences between the Windows version and the iOS version is the level editor only in the Windows version. The iOS version and the Android version of the game still occasionally gets updates, which might imply the game developer, Gamious, is still around and existing. I wish I can strongly recommend people to buy this game if both enjoying this gameplay concept and want to make usermade levels alongside me, but as it is, if you want to play this game free of advertisements in comparison to the mobile versions of the game, I recommend getting the game for the unique gameplay. I'll still come back to it mainly to make more levels to upload to Steam Workshop, even favoriting this game on Steam, a rarity for me to do. This review is based on version 1.2.1.0, which I assume was released on November 12, 2019.

Interesting puzzle game with creative game mechanics, but completely devoid of any challenge.

Beautiful minimalist puzzle game with a decent amount of depth.

One of the best puzzlers of all time IMHO. Bought S.O. a copy and they are into it too. From here I assume (I know...) you have looked at the premise of the game: Different means changes up the game, progression is beat 10 puzzles of one type to earn ability to play the next, though many more still available in that type, they made 10 the standard to move up. A lot of levels, an level creator tool, and pretty much endless replay ability and excellent price. Point, knife, rope, erase, portal, mixed (1st 4 only included) Portal would probably make it too easy. Also Bronze Silver and Gold awarded for 1 win, 2 consecutive wins, and 3+ consecutive wins available on each level, resets if ya lost one, Infinity mode play level until you lose. Game for all I say! 8)