At first glance, Hexius looks a lot like Hexic or if you're unfamiliar, Bejeweled where you match hexes instead of squares. In reality though, the two games couldn't be more different. While the gameplay of Hexic is slow-paced, thoughtful and strategic, it quickly becomes evident that playing Hexius with that mindset is just about the worst thing you could do, at least in two of the three game modes. In the center of each hexigon is one of five shapes in one of four colors. Upon touching any particular shape, the goal of the game becomes to select all hexagons on the screen containing that same shape of that same color. When any hex after the first one is selected, all those in-between that and the previously selected one go with it and upon selecting the final hex on the screen with the pre-defined shape and color, they all disappear, are replaced with new shapes, and the process starts again.
The game has three main modes. In Time Attack, your goal is to amass points as fast as you can before time expires. This is helped by power-ups such as bombs, multipliers, or slowing time. At least the way I play it, the most effective strategy seems to be selecting as many shapes as possible, as quickly as possible. Challenge mode places several hexagons which can't be directly selected, but you must get rid of before time expires to proceed to the next challenge level, each of which contains even more of them. Strategy mode is the only slow paced part of the game, giving you a limited number of selections instead of limited time, and thus requires some thought to get a high score.
Hexius lacks any glaring faults, so whether or not you would enjoy this game is based very much on your personal preferences. Each of its three modes offers something different and is well implemented. They could individually justify purchasing the game, but combined, they make up a very well rounded product easily worth the dollar asking price. I've never played a game quite like this on the iPhone, but even if it weren't unique, it's of the quality that any competition would have quite the standard to live up to.
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Graphics |
8.0 |
Menus are very smooth, and what the game does visually, it does very well. They're not as flashy as I might like for this sort of game, but the graphics definitely get the job done. |
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Audio |
7.0 |
There is little to no music, so playing the game with your music library is the best option. The sound effects though, are distinct and varied with any action you take. |
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Single Player |
10 |
This is an interesting take on hex-based puzzle games. The gameplay is innovative, controls are fluid, and even with the game moving as fast as it does, I never had a situation where the game construed my selection as anything other than what I meant to do. |
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Multiplayer |
N/A |
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Replay |
9.0 |
Separate leaderboards for each of the three modes and time-consuming but obtainable achievements add a lot of incentive to keep playing. |
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Overall |
9.0 |
Hexius is a great, unique fast-paced puzzle game that is well worth the dollar asking price. |
