[b]may 2022 edit:[/b] price increase from ridiculously low to still very much reasonable, no argument from me.
[b]loginode[/b] is yet another guessing-free minesweeper-like, though this one has nodes with numbers connected to each other instead of a grid, plus no indication of the total number of marked nodes, so might as well lose the minesweeper comparison early on (the store page started it!) and simply call it a deductive puzzler. it was a bit iffy on release, but the developer fixed and added pretty much everything reported and requested in a couple of days, including the all-important [b]mid-level saving[/b]. unfortunately, it only saves the progress of the last level you quit, can't have multiple on the go, but better than nothing.
[b]107 levels[/b], 5 of which are unnumbered tutorials as new mechanics (including lovely hexagons) get introduced. more than one level is available at any time, always nice. in fact, each tutorial unlocks all the levels until and including the next one, so there are basically 5 level packs with a varying number of levels, and they can be unlocked pretty fast. solving them is another matter, of course, though [b]there's not much of a difficulty curve[/b] within the 'packs'.
controls are simple: left click to mark a node as 'colorful', right click to mark as blank, and [b]middle mouse to mark as maybe[/b] also got patched in (it alternates between not marked, maybe colorful and maybe blank), and you can switch mouse button functionality too. [i]green nodes[/i] show the nearest colorful node, so if you see 1 and a question mark next to it, that will also be colorful, if there are three nodes, the first has a 2 and the other two are question marks, the second will be blank, the third colorful, and upon selection it will show a 2 as well.
simple concept, but of course difficulty ramps up with [i]blue nodes[/i] highlighting the second closest node (which can be the same as the closest), [i]red nodes[/i] indicating the third closest (again, can the same as the first and second), [i]purple nodes[/i], yep, the fourth closest. [b]hexagons[/b] with a number inside (not on a node) hint at the number of colorful nodes among the ones making up the hexagon. or not, because the game interprets hexagons very loosely.
the 3-star rating is based on the number of mistakes (or misclicks) you make. couldn't care less about it, it's not like I'm gonna guess my way through a game like this, nor am I gonna restart just because I clicked the wrong thing accidentally, so [b]a toggle was added to hide the mistake counter[/b]. since each node can only be one of two things, a misclick essentially decides the matter and it's harder to un-see things than avoid seeing them at all, so [b]it'd be even better if error highlighting was optional[/b], like in a good nonogram. let me figure it all out and if I'm correct, *ding*, level complete.
there's also a [b]hint button[/b] and it's actually pretty neat. instead of revealing a node, it just shows which one can be deduced based on the current situation, so you can concentrate on figuring out if it's blank or not. no repercussions for using it either.
the presentation is pleasantly minimalistic, clean and done well. settings include separate volume settings, resolutions, windowed mode, dark mode, large ui (also embiggens the nodes) and high quality graphics toggles, and after a patch they are available while playing a level as well. there's an exit button and on-screen level numbers, but [b]alt+tabbing doesn't work properly when in full screen[/b]. the taskbar is visible but the game remains on top, no matter which window you switch to. I was told it's the engine's fault, so it may or may not get fixed at some point.
it's a [b]really good puzzler done really well and with plenty of content[/b]. the developer is responsive and the price was actually too low on release in my opinion (so much lazy trash that costs so much more), so the increase from $1 to $3 a month later was very much understandable and it's still [b]absolutely recommended[/b]. saving should still be improved though.
