The game held my focus for nearly a week before fading into the background of my hundreds of other games. This mode increases difficulty at a much steeper slope than story mode, and randomly instructs the player to match multiple sets of individual colors, while completely ignoring other colors. Arcade mode lets you just play, your only opponent is the clock. After an easy fifteen levels the player is granted an arcade mode, which is probably where I had the most fun. A rotation (or turn) will physically spin the board about its axis, at which point gravity takes over and allows blocks to fall into their new, hopefully advantageous positions. In the first case, a tilt might be enough to nudge the target block from its lofty post, which pushes all cubes on the board in one direction. The blocks could be at different elevations, separated by concrete walls, or just cornered somewhere. Colored cubes spawn within the confines of a mysterious floating box, and in story mode, you cannot proceed to the next level until all of the colors are matched in groups of three. It can be infuriating, but the naturally cool-colored backdrops and silly banter from passing civilians (who muse at the cube floating in the air) will keep your head level. That’s the problem: there are no difficulty options in the menu, no indicators or walk-throughs prevalent, and no ability to just skip that one level you are stuck on. As I progressed rapidly through the stages, the game’s difficulty advanced at an equal pace I simply started having trouble keeping up, and inevitably developed a habit of walking away for a few minutes, returning, and realizing exactly what to do – as if stricken by brilliance. I could figure each situation out within a matter of seconds, and my ego reflected it… for about ten minutes. Starting out, I felt like I was almost too good. I must admit, upon solving the tutorial puzzle, I announced “First blood!” Game on, Vizati. Probably for the best, because as a hardcore gamer, I more than once felt the urge to dispense headshots of justice upon the occasional head-scratcher. The game has an affinity for calming tones: from the modest artwork (which reminded us of Machinarium) to the resonating acoustic soundtrack, it is all very Zen. Vizati is a simplistic-yet-challenging puzzle game, and is as elegant as it is perplexing. Exceed the action limit and lose the level. The objective? Fudge the board until three same-colored blocks are adjacent, but do so in a limited number of actions. It’s well worth its low asking price and the arcade mode is enough to keep you playing for a little longer even after you’ve completed all 50 standard levels.Remember those old cartoons where two people are playing chess and one looks away, only to turn back and see that the board has been rotated in his opponent’s favor? Vizati’s fundamental mechanics revolve around something which normally feels like cheating – tilting and rotating the field to your liking. Vizati probably isn’t a game that anyone will be glued to for hours at a time, but it’s an ideal casual game – an engaging diversion that, as you progress to the higher levels, becomes difficult enough to produce a real sense of satisfaction when you finally clear a puzzle. Arcade mode is a faster-moving game where jewelled blocks keep appearing and you simply have to eliminate a certain number of a specified colour before the square fills up entirely. It’s here that the entirely peripheral plot comes in, as a young woman marvels at the stone cube that hovers and rotates in the sky above her. The first requires you to solve a sequence of 50 puzzles, which become increasingly fiendish as you get past the halfway mark. Tilting simply nudges your blocks left or right, while rotating and flipping the square sends all the blocks tumbling to what is now the bottom of the square. Using the keyboard, mouse or an Xbox controller, you can tilt, rotate or flip the square to make the jewels inside it move accordingly. The objective is to clear the square of jewels within a set number of moves. Inside the square are a handful of jewelled stones, which you have to join in groups of three or more to make them disappear. Vizati is played in a square of grey stone blocks. We were particularly surprised by the plot, as this is a pure puzzle game. There’s almost a standard rulebook for what a modern indie game should have: lush, hand-painted backgrounds a beautifully ethereal original score and a vaguely otherworldly plot.
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