In today’s game reviews we talk about Lyne, a minimalistic puzzle game. It was released almost 10 years ago in early 2014 by Australian game maker Thomas Bowker.
Connect X to X and Y to Y – I am done, right? – Gameplay basics
In Lyne, as the name already suggests, your goal is to connect two points of one color with one line. While constructing a way you’ll have to move the line through blocks of the corresponding color. Each block is only allowed to be connect once, only some connector blocks are meant to be crossed multiple times to complete a level.
Depending on the level the amount of colored blocks that have to be connected changes and you’ll find more of the connector blocks. The difficulty of levels varies in each set of levels.
If you’re interested in steam achievements: the 33 achievements require you to complete all of the initial “alphabet levels” which sum up to 650 single levels and 10 daily sets which the total of levels up to 900. In addition to that you’ll simply have to change the color palette once.
Fancy colors – Game design and level structure
Lyne is made out of simple shapes like rectangles and triangles that can be connected with simple lines. The beauty of the game comes from the different color palette options that are unlocked through completing certain milestones.
If you’re playing with headphones you’ll be able to enjoy some very satisfying sounds each time you complete a level or draw your line through the shapes.
Each alphabetically sorted set of 25 levels includes a variety of difficulties which leads to a interesting game experience. Sometimes I was able to complete multiple levels in a minute and sometimes one level took me up to 10 minutes.
In addition to the “normal” you also get multiple daily sets each day that are generated to create more new levels. These vary in difficulty but are generally not harder than what you’ll be used to from the “alphabet levels”.
Conclusion
Lyne: Lyne is a fun, simplistic puzzle game that can challenge your mental power but also provide a relaxing time. The game offers an basically endless amount of challenges and is definitely worth the 3€ (sometimes even less than that). – GLPC: emk
