Hexcells

Played recently and recommended: Hexcells. That link is to the “complete pack” with all three games in the series. The third, Hexcells Infinite, includes generating levels from random seeds, so not technically infinite but more procedurally generated levels than you could play in a lifetime.

Hexcells is a puzzle game, a cousin to Minesweeper played on hexes. As usual, each hex says how many neighboring hexes have “bombs.” Hexcells then goes on to have more board layouts and different ways those numbers appear: -2- means the two bombs are not next to each other, {2} means they are. A number on a bomb means how many bombs are within two hexes, not just next to it. Some spots have ? instead of a number, so you do not get new information. Some columns have numbers on them, or not. As the “infinite” implies, there are lots of ways you can play with that. Notably, there are no “guess” points; given the information available, you should always be able to deduce at least one more hex until you finish the puzzle.

Level design is mostly good, sometimes uneven. Difficulty can jump around, although the level of difficulty is likely related to what you consider intuitive, which may track with the developers or go in an entirely other direction. The last game has some of the best deductive moments in the series, along with several levels that are just clunky. The levels usually get longer as the game goes on; the original game is pretty quick, while you start to regularly see maps with more than 100 bombs in the second game.

Enjoyable, and enjoyable at length with procedurally generated levels.

: Zubon

One thought on “Hexcells”

  1. I really enjoyed playing hexcells, it is one of them games that you can keep playing again and again like the original minesweeper. I wouldn’t be surprised if a future version of windows shipped with a similar game to this. Really enjoyed it :)

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