Game Review by Elicia Flom
Game Rating = 5/5 Balls
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Buy The Game $9.95
“Cogs” is the perfect name for this “tile” game where gears or “Cogs” on top of tiles rotate independently in elaborate three dimensional puzzles. Players are challenged to move the tiles so the rotating “Cogs” turn other “Cogs” in progressively more difficult patterns required to ring chimes, fill pipes of steam or even make a “Jack-in-the-Box” pop open with its traditional tune.
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Buy The Game $9.95
“Cogs” requires the installation and activation of Steam located at the site, http://store.steampowered.com/ Steam is a free, down loadable Internet tool that allows players to compete with other players, instant message their friends and find great game servers. Once Steam is installed, “Cogs” system requirements are clearly listed and the program installs quickly without a reboot on Windows Vista.
When starting the program, the player navigates through a well-designed menu offering “Inventor” and “Challenge” modes to engage novice through expert level players. The Inventor mode has no time limit. Players can continue past the suggested time but will be awarded fewer stars the more moves or time they take. In the Challenge mode, players have only 30 seconds or 10 moves to solve the puzzle. The main menu offers directions on “how to play” and includes illustrations. The options included give the player various graphic and sound choices to customize for their computer systems.
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Buy The Game $9.95
The graphics on the menu use traditional style fonts that are large enough to easily read. Puzzles are visually appealing featuring gold and silver gears sparsely arranged over puzzles on backgrounds that look like they were fashioned by a medieval blacksmith. The music adds a welcome texture; reminiscent of themes from the “Harry Potter” movies and encouraging the player to make thoughtful decisions quickly at each level. When the player solves the puzzle, a magical type sound is made, the stars are awarded and the player can advance to another puzzle.
Each puzzle has a brief description of the objective matched with directions on how to use the mouse. Puzzles can be played in any order. All navigation buttons like “Pause” and “Retry” are easy to see and use so a player can review the directions, or get a “Fresh Start” on a puzzle. During the game, the player can see the timer as well as number of moves taken. Players are awarded stars. Players with the lowest “moves” and “least time” earn the best rating of three stars.
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Buy The Game $9.95
When returning to “Cogs”, the menu clearly displays the games completed and the puzzles not yet attempted. With the “Challenge” mode, even expert players can increase the level of difficulty keeping players thoroughly engrossed. “Cogs” is visually appealing, well-designed and challenging enough to bring even the experts back over and over making “Cogs” a great game to purchase today!
Lazy 8 Studios created Cogs.
