I have a confession. I'm a nerd. I've been a nerd since as far back as I can remember, in fact. My nerd-dome has been responsible for such odd activities as reading, picking a computer programming class back in high school instead of having another free period, and enjoying jigsaw puzzles as a way of relaxation. It is this final hobby which has left me hoping that someone would finally bring the same challenging enjoyment out of a cardboard puzzle to the PC. The makers of Solved have come much closer than any other developer has to date despite a few flaws in the game.Solved is brought to you by a small independent developer, Enigma Games. Described by them as a “traditional jigsaw puzzle game”, my overall impression of the game is that it is the best of its type out there right now. The download comes with 40 puzzles to pick from, with anywhere from 20 piece puzzles to more detailed 63 piece puzzles. Most of the images used are complex enough that even the smaller puzzles aren't completely straight forward as to what goes where, though they only take a few minutes to solve. The images are divided into 5 categories, Nature, Animals, Space, Buildings and Art. When you start the game, you decide if you want to play in Leisure or Challenge mode. The main difference is that in Challenge mode, you have a limited number of mistakes you can make before you fail, and a timer is running as you play.
Gameplay is rather simple, and this is where some of what I see as the flaws come in. You flip through the pieces one at a time trying to place them on the puzzle board. They do not always show up in the orientation that they'll be on the board, so you have tools to rotate them 90 degrees at a time until they are the way they belong. You can't see the picture you are trying to make and the puzzle board at the same time, so at first you'll probably have to do a lot of flipping between the two in order to place pieces. This is one of the minor flaws of the game compared to doing a puzzle in real life. I like to be able to see what I'm making and compare it to the piece I am trying to place, and unless you have a good visual memory, you can't do that easily. This is a minor flaw compared to my one annoyance about the game. You really can only view one piece at a time. Other jigsaw puzzle games I've tried let you move pieces off to the side and sort them as you would while doing a puzzle in real life. This would be a huge addition to Solved that would be signifigant enough that I'm not quite sure why it was left out other than space issues on the playspace. A puzzle with only 63 pieces shouldn't take half an hour to complete, yet that's about how long it takes me to flip through the different pieces and solve one of these “advanced” puzzles. Personally, I see enough white space around the pictures that it seems there's plenty of room to stack pieces, so perhaps Solved 2.0 will have this feature added to it. (Yes, developer's, that's a hint.)
The other thing that I would like to have seen that would make the game have much more replayability is there to be puzzles with more pieces. The current 63 piece puzzles have pieces that aren't so small that they couldn't be cut smaller. The other fun addition would be if you could take your own images and turn them in to puzzles, though I'm not sure how much extra work that would take. There is supposed to be a monthly subscription service that will add new puzzles to the original set of 40, which would help to give some longevity to the game over all. I haven't subscribed, though, because I have yet to solve all the puzzles that came in the orignal pack.
Overall I have to say that Solved is the best jigsaw puzzle game currently available despite it's flaws. With a few changes and modifications, it could easily be the only jigsaw puzzle game that you need. I know it's one that I return to often when I need something to do on my computer to just relax and have fun for short periods of time.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
