Recent reviews by NextTimeGadget

Escape from Puzzlegate is a game designed for children. It's cute. But it has a major flaw: there are very few actual puzzles in this game, despite the title.

There are four areas to visit. In each area, there is a key that makes opening the door easier. The first has an extremely simple side-scroller level; the second has an extremely simple find-the-obvious-object section; the third has an extremely simple maze section. The kicker is that the fourth area, one of the few parts of the game that actually has a puzzle-ish feel to it, has controls that are way more complicated than it needs to be. So there's three easy non-puzzles and one annoyingly complicated "puzzle", which not what I would expect from the title, especially if it's for children.

The "puzzlegate" itself is a simple sliding blocks puzzle with a time limit. Collecting more keys increases the time limit. It is possible to beat the door without collecting a single key and without ever meeting your cute little brown Sphinx companion. However, the dialogue afterwards still assumes that you're friends with the Sphinx character. Stuff like this shows that the developer didn't really flesh out the design enough.

The game's cute though.

This is a solid stealth game.

The ball weapon is surprisingly versatile. You can toss it around the corner by throwing it at a wall. You can also use it to distract enemies. And, after you charge it up, you can destroy enemies with it. If you throw it correctly, the ball will bounce off the enemy and back to your hands. Otherwise, it will bounce elsewhere, and you will have to chase it....

Unless you use a power-up. There are four power-ups that you can use, and by grabbing coins and beating levels, you can purchase stronger power-ups or more uses of power-ups. One of them returns the ball to you if it gets away from you. Another gives you a temporary cloak, which is perhaps too powerful. I recommend not using the cloak power-up except on those levels where beating it under par time is way too difficult or impossible without it.

The only real problem is that the mouse cursor doesn't change shape and color in-game. My cursor is a small white arrow, and it makes it difficult to aim quickly in a bright and colorful game like this unless you're constantly looking at it.

Nevertheless, I recommend this game.

This game is a great example of an "easy to play, hard to master"-type of game.

The game is quite forgiving in some ways. Getting the blue comets is mostly easy, there's an instant restart button and a Speed Up button so that you can quickly pick up where you left off. Also, there's always two levels open, so if you get stuck on one level, you can just go to the other open level and continue.

But then there's the gold comets, which require both puzzle-solving and dexterity to get. If you get too many blue comets, you'll accidentally finish the level before picking up all the gold comets. The timer is also a factor. This is where the challenge and the difficult achievements are.

Because of this, the nicely designed levels, and the good music, I would recommend this game to any player looking to find a great puzzle game.

This is a very challenging game.

The first key to beating this game is one word: PATIENCE. If you try and run-and-gun you will most likely fail because most of the enemies are capable of shooting you as soon as they notice you. Also, there are areas which require precise timing to avoid getting hit.

The second key is to know your weapons. Each weapon has its strengths and weaknesses. You need to know which weapons to get and to avoid for each section of the level. This is especially important because the power-ups are randomized.

Once you understand these two concepts, you will have a nice, difficult time playing and (hopefully) beating the game. Good luck!