Puz: Revolved [by Alter Ego Studios]

Game Review:  Revolved
Release: December 2004
Genre: Puzzle
Developer: Alter Ego Studios
System Requirements: Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP, 733 Mhz , 64 MB RAM, DirectX 3.0+
Players: 1
Price: $19.95
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Are you a fan of puzzle games but have been singing the block blues? I know I have been, it seems like every new puzzle game I play is based on square blocks that you have to get rid of by piling in some way. Even games like Bejeweled have the same block feeling, only the blocks are replaced with various images. But they don’t fool me, I know it’s still a block! Well, Revolved may be a good game for you to try if you have a case of ‘blockitis’ like me.

Revolved is a simple puzzle game, so simple that it’s name describes its complete game play. In revolved the object is to connect a series of fuses together to create simple shapes, such as squares, or various longer chains. You do this by applying a series of rotations to a grid of fuses; each part of the grid is individually rotated. As you complete more combinations, some of your fuses will start conducting more power and cause larger chain reactions. The beauty of the game is the more you play it the more you start seeing combination possibilities. And to me that’s what puzzle games are all about, now if I can only get a bigger combo…

Graphics: 8
The graphics in Revolved are well done but a bit primitive. Of course, how complex do fuses need to be? Every time you clear a fuse chain, a bunch of small pixel-sized squares will explode out of the fuses and move to your bottom of the screen. There isn’t any blending which would make it look real cool (I’ve always been a huge fan of great particle engines!) but I think the effect still looks good and keeps the game running fast even on older computers, which I assume is the true intent. My problem with them is the more you play the game, the more you realize you have to keep completing combos while these effects are all over the screen, and at times it becomes hard to see what you are doing. One other graphics problem I ran across on one of the computers I played Revolved with was that the letter “A” was missing in the font; it seemed rather bizarre to me but didn’t keep me from being able to play the game just fine.

Overall the graphics are clean and well done. There are constantly a variety of things happening on the screen, but I never felt the screen was over-cluttered.

Sound: 9
The music for this game is a rather fast-paced techno style of music. At first it seem like the wrong type of music for this genre, but after playing the game a bit it feels like the perfect music. It’s crisp sounding, and seems to mesh well with the industrial themed look. Because this is the type of game that you play in short doses, it doesn’t get old or annoying. The sound effects are also fitting, and enhance the experience, except the weird robotic voices. I’m sure some people like the computer-sounding speech, but it really got on my nerves. I loved the 80’s as much as the next guy, but after 5 minutes of playing the game I longed for a way to turn the robots off.

Game play: 9
This is truly the meat of Revolved. The game play is fun and addictive. You simply don’t get better then that. It is a puzzle type that is new, and it doesn’t feel as forced as a lot of the puzzle clones out there.

I would like to see more options in the game. The core is fantastic, and shouldn’t be messed with, but future consideration should be given to an arcade mode that saves your progress, an online high-score board, and/or multiplayer options. While it’s got an addictive game play, if you spend too much time playing it at one sitting, you’ll notice the same arcade levels will appear in the same configurations every time you start a new game, that gets a little old. I also didn’t see anything that indicated what level I had reached. I would like to see something that showed me I was making progress of some sort as I played the game.

Value: 9
If you’re looking for a great puzzle game to play in short doses, Revolved is a great choice. Its fantastically addictive and its something new, which puzzle fans desperately need. It has the sticker price of $19.95, which seems like a good price to me. As I said earlier, I’d like to see some more options available, but this game is so addictive I’d have a hard time passing it up at this price.

Concept: 10
A very different game type that I haven’t seen anywhere else. This is an ingenious game that has multiple levels of game play that will keep any gamer going for a long time.

Fun: 10
In case you didn’t read the rest of the review, this game is fun! It’s addictively fun, and I’ll warn you right now it may cause you have chain-making dreams!

Overall: 9
The acclaim for Revolved is well deserved. It is a breathe of fresh air for puzzle players everywhere. In a market that is saturated with clones, Revolved stands out among the rest, and will be a great addition to any puzzle library.
Added: February 26th 2005
Reviewer: Bryce Carroll
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