<sub> *Hello and welcome to @qzsg game review series. Welcome to one of my many game reviews!
Games seldom impress me enough to write about them, so you can be sure my reccomendations can't go wrong.* </sub>
# What is Hexcells?
<center> 
<div>Modified from in game menu</div></center>
## Description
> <sub>Hexcells is an ambient logic puzzle game for PC, Mac and Linux.</sub>
The above description comes direct from Hexcells's Steam Description, but let's explain it a tad further instead of leaving it at that one simple sentence!
How many of you have played some version of Minesweeper before? Hands up! β
I am sure many of you have played Minesweeper on one or more platforms before, more notably on Windows as Microsoft Minesweeper alongside 3D Pinball as well as Microsoft Soltiare
<center> 
<div>Source: <a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/31/Minesweeper_XP.png
">Wikipedia</a> </div></center>
The main objective of Minesweeper is to clear the board of hidden mines using clues with more clues showing up once safe cells are clicked on, trying to not detonate any mines in the process.
In Hexcells, the premise is the same, but this time, there are no mines and no square cells π².
Rather Hexcells works using a hexagonal orange board, the goal is to identify and seperate the blue and the clue cells will making as few mistakes as you can.
In addition, Hexcells adds some clever mechanisms to an already established formula, as the game progresses, more mechanics are added like consecutive linked cells and nonogram/ picross like clues for rows and columns.
Hexcells like most good puzzle games eases you into the game slowly. It starts from easy puzzles like this introducing new mechanics.
<center> 
<div>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/265890/Hexcells/">Hexcells Steam Product Page</a> </div></center>
To the end game horrifying monstrosity of a puzzle like this.
<center> 
<div>Source: <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/265890/Hexcells/">Hexcells Steam Product Page</a> </div></center>
## Discovery
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l7iNJTlNeec" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<br/>
Well I will be honest with this one, Hexcells have been on my radar for a pretty long time ever since it was released. One cannot claim to be a puzzle fanatic without really knowing or hearing about Hexcells one point or another on the interwebs.
However, it seems to me that I have always forgot about it a few days after re-hearing about Hexcells. Probably have to do with my humongous Steam backlog I guess.
Not this time though. Everyone with a Steam account would have known about the current Steam Summer Sale 2017 !
Woo! Sale! ππ ! Rest in peace wallet in the meantime though πΈπ₯
I was looking through my Steam Discovery queue when walla , Hexcells leaped out of my screen! Ok, that last part was too much of a stretch.
I looked at the price tag : $0.89 USD.
As they say, the rest is history and here we are with a raving review of it.
### Why buy the game?
I guess if you are a fellow puzzle fanatic like me, you would not be able to resist not buying a game reccomended by another puzzle fanatic would'nt you? π
**Pros of Hexcells**
- **Music** - Amazing ambient music!
- **Amazing Puzzles** - You can see that the developer actually put effort into making the puzzles interesting.
- **Smooth Difficulty Curve** - It starts from me being spoon-fed to me crying to be spoon-fed, you get the idea.
- **Good tutorial** - Provides tutorials to teach you new mechanisms at apt places too.
- **Price tag** - Gonna use this again, $0.89 USD or 0.0003313 BTC at the time of this review ( even lower than most fees on the mempool), It costs even less compared to a Hotdog ! XD
**Cons of Hexcells**
As usual I find it hard to find cons for good and well designed puzzle games
- **Too few puzzles** - There are so few puzzles in this first version of Hexcells, just when I thought I was having fun, it was over, then again, so was my bedtime. It lasts around 2 and a half hours for me, although if you are fairly new to puzzles like these, it should take approximately 3 to 4 hours. Which makes that 20 cents per hour of entertainment, beat that!
## Obligatory gameplay
Want to see a let's play? I kinda recorded me playing one of the harder puzzles, but without any commentary though, spoiler alert . Check it out below!
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JCoxJIP1q3U" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
## Where to buy?!
You can purchase Hexcells on various platforms.
| **Store** | **Link** | **Price** | **Notes** |
|:------------:|-------------------------------------------------------------|:---------:|:-------------------------:|
| Steam | [Link](https://store.steampowered.com/app/265890/Hexcells/) | $0.89 USD <br/> ~~$2.99 USD~~ | Steam Key Only |
| Humble Store | [Link](http://www.matthewbrowngames.com/) <br/> Scroll to bottom widget | $6.99 USD | Steam + DRM free versions |
## TL:DR;
Hexcells is a fun minesweeper esque game with added mechanisms from puzzles like nonograms on Steam that is engaging and satisfying despite having a smaller than desired number of puzzles to solve.
**@qzsg Rating: 9/10**
*Awesome Puzzler to scratch that itch to solve something*
### Previous Reviews
| **Review #** | **Game Review** | **Genre** | **Rating** |
|:------------:|-------------------------------------------------------------|:---------:|:-------------------------:|
| #1 | [What is Pictopix?](https://steemit.com/gaming/@qzsg/what-is-pictopix) | Puzzle | 9/10 |
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