[b]lonely path[/b] is a tranquil number game set in a garden, a bit like solitaire, freecell more than anything. a supposedly helpful bee tries to ease you into things by telling you to click stuff (this ain't a lazy tapping mobile port). the goal is to move everything out of the way and create a clear but not necessarily straight path from bottom to top. not everything is beexplained in detail, so beetorial aside, it took me a while to grasp what's what.
tiles can only be moved where the path is clear, can't jump over others. some start face down, can also only be turned up if the path is clear to them. you can stack cards on top of each other, again as long as the path is clear between them, unless their marking and color (pink) says otherwise. those can only go on top of others, can't put anything on them.
arrows and more colors indicate what you can put where, so a 4 with a down arrow (blue) means 3 and only 3 fits (one less than 4), 1 with an up arrow (red) means you can only put 2 there (one more than 1). up-down-up works, of course, like in solitaire, the equal sign (green) is self-explanatory. [b]stacks can also be moved[/b], so you can put 2 on a 3 with a down arrow, then with 2 on top, the stack can go over a 1 with an up arrow, but only if it's adjacent and can't put stacks on an empty tile either. I think [b]a mouseover tooltip showing what the stacks contain would be helpful[/b] (or on demand with mouse wheel click).
[b]100 levels[/b] in 5 regions with a few mechanics introduced along the way. based on a patch note [b]I expected level skip to be a simple button, but it's just that after level 15 every solved one unlocks the next 2 instead of 1[/b] (so figuring out every other is enough to unlock all of them). better than nothing (would still be stuck on level 50 otherwise), but proper level skip is always nice, no need to deny access permanently to content one has already paid for if they get stuck. there's also [b]unlimited undo[/b] and unsolicited advice from the buzzer if you faff around too long or do something that isn't possible. [b]mid-level progress gets saved individually if you quit[/b], undo history doesn't and [b]levels in progress aren't marked on level select[/b].
spiderwebs hold tiles hostage forever but they can be still used as a base (everything stacked there gets stuck), certain tiles provide a fresh coat of paint and rule that goes with it, or increase or decrease the value of a tile. flowers essentially act like pressure plates, opening and closing other flowers. closed ones with a tile inside can't be told apart by color, not great. and no new mechanics in the last level pack, same old for the last 30-odd levels.
ratings aren't used for anything and are based on how many tiles are left unturned by the end. that's what the game says but had no idea how it worked exactly, none of the math I tried made sense. then I was told 3 is the base score so that every level can have a rating even if each tile has to be used. surely there's a less confusing way of doing it (not to mention there's a level with a maximum score of 2).
[b]mouse-only controls, basic hotkeys got patched in[/b] (esc for the settings, 'r' to restart, backspace is undo). both click & drag and click to pick up, click to move is possible, available destinations shown in each case. stacks can be moved with right click, also both ways.
[b]really beautiful graphics, relaxing music[/b], fitting ambiance for each region. settings cover the necessities and are available while playing. separate volumes, resizable windowed mode, toggles for both the tutorial and advice pop-ups, and there's a [b]spider toggle[/b] as well, very considerate. I left it on out of curiosity but never saw a single one. turns out, they are on the green cards as barely noticable decoration. on-screen level numbers, level complete with replay, next, menu and level select buttons, the way it's meant to be, level select drops you at the last played region. direct access to all 5 packs on every screen besides left/right arrows would be nice but can't have everything.
a [b]level editor with workshop support[/b] is also in the package, with matching achievements. I always have to say this, an editor is only an asset if there's a community to use it (rarely the case with so many games getting zero visibility), and while achievements for creating and playing those levels are added to boost user-made content, it almost never leads to quality stuff because achievement people only care about getting them as fast and easily as possible. if a game is played by nobody, no extra content, if it gets popular, the workshop will be flooded with trash one would have to wade through to find the odd quality level.
it's [b]done really well[/b] and missing basic stuff got added fast based on feedback. it's [b]the bee's knees, hard to find fault with it[/b] and if I'm good at anything, it's that. didn't manage to solve, let alone perfect, every level, [b]all the stacking got way too tedious, especially near the end[/b]. maybe I was just doing things wrong, but I still unlocked every level and solved 90, good enough. a [b]demo is available[/b] to see if it's something for you, a phenomenon becoming less and less common after release (or even worse, a random week months before release).
