Raccoon The Miner

[b]My Playtime:[/b] 18h (100% achievement, finished the game) [b]Grindy Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (1+ achievement). [b]Optional Achievement(s):[/b] Yes (~3 achievements). [b]Difficult Achievement(s):[/b] No. [h1]Intro[/h1] [i]Raccoon The Miner[/i] is a Nonogram game where you need to solve randomly-generated Nonograms. It has 63 levels in total, with each level generating a Nonogram of varying sizes, ranging from 6x5 to 39x24. [b]Pros:[/b] - Randomized levels for replayability - Powerups [b]Cons:[/b] - Lacking a lot of QoL content: no separator every 5x5 tiles, no highlight where your cursor is, clues aren't greyed out after being solved - There is a chance that a clue is hidden behind the UI - Some solutions are not unique [b]Specs[/b] Intel Core i5-9300H 2.40GHz, 8GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 [h1]Should you play this game?[/h1] [i]It's a nightmare trying to solve the larger levels without the QoL features.[/i] [hr][/hr] [h1]In-Depth Review[/h1] [h3]Visuals[/h3] For a Nonogram game, the display is very small. I know that it tries to cater to larger Nonogram sizes, but the level is still too small, even on smaller Nonogram sizes. This makes a lot of space appear empty, making the clue hard to see sometimes. [h3]The Game[/h3] [b]Gameplay[/b] [i]Raccoon The Miner[/i] is a Nonogram game with 63 levels. All levels have randomly generated puzzles, with the difference between the levels only lying in the puzzle size. Since the puzzles are randomly generated, there won't be a picture after you solve the puzzle. Switching between levels is quick, though, since there are barely any animations to slow it down. The game lacks basic QoL functions. The tiles are not separated every 5 tiles, the game doesn't highlight where your cursor is, and clues aren't even grayed out after you solve them. Moreover, the game counts your mistakes, and getting 3 mistakes in a level means that you must retry the puzzle again, where it'll randomly generate a new one for you to beat. All of these make it hard to solve the puzzles, especially since you need to count the tiles one by one. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3583112052 That being said, the game has some power-ups for you to abuse. It never tells what each power-up does, although you'll get 5 of them for free at first. You can buy more from the shop, but the price means that you need to grind a lot if you use many of them and need more. [b]Length and Difficulty[/b] I finished the game in 15.7h with 3 stars (no mistakes) and no power-ups. I then spent the rest of my playtime getting the last grindy achievement. As for the difficulty, casual players might find it hard to solve the larger puzzles, although it would be too easy for veteran players. I'm impressed with the level randomization, though. The generated puzzle almost never feels impossible to solve—there are always enough clues to fill most of the board without guessing, although I found the game forcing me to guess between two options to solve it sometimes. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3082364316 [b]Issues[/b] There is a chance that a clue is hidden behind the UI on larger puzzles, making it hard to solve the level if you are not careful. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] The randomization in [i]Racoon The Miner[/i] means that you can play the game endlessly, but it also comes with a lack of QoL functions. This makes it hard to solve the levels at a larger size, and since there is a chance that the game will generate levels that require guessing, I'm afraid that I couldn't recommend this game.