Enigmo: Explore: You Have 30 Seconds To Relax [Review]

Developer Pangea Software’s well-regarded Enigmo series of puzzle games has been around for a while, and they’ve turned over development of the latest installment, Enigmo: Explore to a new team, but the idea is the same: See that liquid dripping from a pipe over here? Get it into that jar over there.

The game gives you a suite of tools to accomplish this, including trampoline-like items that the drops bounce off of and little cannons that can send them even farther. It’s up to you to decide which items in which combinations to use to complete levels, which offers you a decent amount of freedom when you’re playing it.

But a couple other features work just as hard against you, and it’s kind of a shame.

The App Store description of Enigmo: Explore describes it as “zen-inducing.” I can see it, with the serene backgrounds, calm music, and the slightly hypnotic way the drips and drops sail across the screen.

But the scoring system and timer ruin all that zen by putting pressure on you to finish levels as quickly as possible. You receive a score of one to three stars based on how much time is left when you’re done, and the big, obvious meter counting down at the top of the screen has a way of destroying any calm you might have going on.

The scoring system and timer ruin all that zen.

Adding to the decidedly un-zen nature of Explore is the fact that it does not tell you what the different items do, so you spend a lot of time fumbling around with them while the clock counts inexorably down to your failure. It would absolutely work if you had the time to experiment and play around, but that timer ruins everything.

And it’s too bad because the graphics and sound are really good. I want to just watch videos of someone else playing this game so I can get all the calm without the stress that goes along with it.

Game Name: : Enigmo: Explore The Good: Fantastic graphics and sound, potentially very relaxing. The Bad: Decidedly unrelaxing because of the timer and lack of guidance. The Verdict: Enigmo: Explore has a good game inside of it, but it cripples itself — and you — with some unfortunate design decisions. Buy from: App Store — Enigmo: Explore — Team Chaos LLC

[rating=game3]