Minimalist puzzlers are quite popular these days. They are pleasing to the eye, are easy to play and have a very soothing music playing in the background. But the simple game mechanics, uncomplicated graphics and relaxing music may trap players into thinking that the puzzles are easy. No they are not. As you progress through more levels, puzzles get more challenging, and solving one will make you feel like you have achieved an impossible feat.
Zplay and Dropout Games’ Blyss is one such example of an “easy-to-play, hard-to-master” puzzle game. At first, you will find puzzles pretty simple, but as you complete more levels, it will be tough for you to solve them on your first attempt. In every level, the game generates a set of tiles that look a lot like Dominoes blocks. These tiles have dots that need to be cleared to complete a level.
To clear dots, you must create a chain of tiles by swiping over 3 or 4 tiles. In the first few levels, clearing dots will be easy as each tile will have only one dot. So if there are 4 tiles and each tile has one dot, then swiping over all 4 tiles placed next to each other will clear a level. But in later levels, blocks will have more number of dots. You will need to swipe more than once to clear tiles having 2 or 3 dots. So if there are 4 tiles and two of them have 2 dots each, then you will have to create two chains with those two tiles to clear dots on them. This is where things become very difficult. You will have a hard time thinking which tiles to connect, keeping in mind that no dotted tiles are isolated from others. Tiles will also be spread out in different patterns (L-shaped, Z-shaped etc.), making it harder for you to clear all dots. You can swipe over a minimum of 3 tiles and a maximum of 4 tiles at a time and such a rule can make puzzle-solving pretty challenging once more and more tiles start appearing on the game board.
Thankfully, there’s an “endless” mode that provides a training ground for new players. It has plenty of randomly generated levels that allow players to practice before they can unlock “Time Attack” and “Playground”. You should keep playing Endless mode even though you have unlocked the other two game modes. Time Attack won’t be easy as you will have to solve a puzzle before the clock ticks down and the time is out. However, Playground will allow you to pick a difficulty level of your choice. To unlock both these game modes, you will have to complete certain challenges in the endless mode. You will get coins if you complete a challenge. You will need 100 coins to unlock Time Attack and 100 more to unlock Playground.
Blyss can be very addicting once you know how to play. It is recommended for those who love challenging puzzles and have lots of time. While some puzzles take a few seconds to solve, others, especially those that have several tiles, may take several retries before finding a proper solution. All in all, Blyss is a wonderful minimalist puzzle game that will keep you busy for hours.