Well I've only just started playing this, but already I've noticed a few things. I'll maybe update to fill in the gaps when I have played more.
+ It really does look quite pretty.
- It really does look quite pretty. This doesn't really add to the game play and can actually be a bit distracting. The highlighting is slightly animated, for example, which makes it feel a little sluggish.
+ The music is quite soothing.
- But [i]very[/i] repetitive.
+ There are a large number of puzzles. Not yet got into it enough to determine how interesting/good they are.
+ The leader board is a nice addition.
- But this seems to be based purely on number of 'stars' (i.e. puzzles solved) and not time taken. Possibly this is a good thing, though, as it's so easy to cheat on timed sudoku. (Unless only the solve for new puzzles counted, and the hint/autofill options were forced to be off, maybe?) So perhaps the whole concept of a leader board is a bit redundant here anyway?
- My times for solving keep coming up as 00:00 on the final screen, even though some were actually 15+ minutes.
- Even then, I'm in the top 98%. So who is solving in under 00:00 exactly?
- The grid is quite small.
- The [i]window[/i] is quite small. And there are no options to either change this, or go fullscreen.
- Some text isn't translated correctly. One set of choice buttons were totally blank.
- There doesn't seem to be a way of turning off the highlights of cell 'seen' from the one selected. (Grid, row, box.) Maybe I'm just missing something here?
- Turning 'highlight same numbers' off doesn't work. (Still highlighted.)
- Turning 'Show remaining numbers' off doesn't work. I suspect there are other options which don't work either.
- The 'hint' just tells you the value of one cell. There is no explanation given as to why. Which means the hint is simply a crutch which will probably never help you really learn anything new.
- No keyboard shortcut to toggle pencil mode. You can use Shift+[number] for a single value. But this still makes pencilling in 7, 8 or 9 awkward.
- DLC? In a sudoku game? I know it's only a cheap one, but even still..
- Well; some of the game modes [i]say[/i] they are DLC. From the Steam store page. I don't see them. Again, maybe I'm just missing something here.
- No option to colour cells. This is going to make harder puzzles very much harder. (Assuming they use the techniques which decent 'hard' puzzles can use.)
-- Only one cell can be selected at a time. Hopeless when trying to pencil in multiple possibilities. Also makes trying to work out which cells are a certain number a lot harder.
--- Only the 'corner' style of pencil marking is given. This means Snyder notation is impossible. This is going to really tell on the harder puzzles.
I started to write this review to say, "There are quite a few flaws, but even so I recommend it because it's cheap, looks nice and has lots of puzzles." But I can't.
There are simply too many bugs and omissions for me to recommend it. So many of these just aren't excusable in a modern sudoku app. (Or in any app, in some cases.)
The lack of multi-select and Snyder notation are the real kickers for me.
I still might update the review, but only if the bugs are fixed and the required features are added.
