Angels & Demons Puzzle

Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code attracted a fair amount of criticism when it was published - mostly from Catholics and Christians but also from historians disputing he'd done his research before putting pen to paper.

Before his Harvard University symbologist character Robert Langdon became so famous in that book, though, he'd already featured in a first story - Angels & Demons. That story didn't attract the same levels of criticism, but this mobile game based on its just-released film tie-in deserves a little bit of its own.

Mainly because Angels & Demons the game doesn't really have anything to do with Angels & Demons the story. Admittedly it's a tough one to convert into a mobile game - a Robert Langdon platformer with him leaping about the Vatican slaughtering members of the Illuminati probably wouldn't work.

Making the game a puzzle one - as Sony has done - is a far wiser choice. But, instead of telling the story in the cutscenes then tailoring a puzzle to fit what's going on, the game sticks to one type of puzzle - a solitaire peg-based sort of one.

So you read through the cut-scenes - which are told through dialogue between the story's characters - then you go on to play a puzzle game which has little significance to what you've just read. You play either for points or to clear the board of as many pegs as possible, neither of which has anything to do with angels, demons, dead popes or evil Catholics.

Basically, Angels & Demons Puzzle is a bit of a swizz in terms of being a film tie-in game. It's just a puzzle game with the film's name and the added bonus of a story to read in between levels.

Not that this makes the game a bad one - and, in fact, the puzzle game in question is a good one.

Each level begins with a differently shaped grid, and on that grid you're given an assortment of pegs. These pegs come in a variety of types. Marble ones are the basic pegs and can just be used to jump over one other peg (which causes the peg it's jumped to disappear).

Then there are elemental pegs, which are able to take out up to five other pegs of the same type in a row.

Less helpful are the Illuminati pegs, which have eyes. When their eye is open, you can't jump them, so you have to wait for them to close. Once you jump one Illuminati peg, the others switch from being open to closed, or vice-versa.

There are also anti-matter pegs, which are best avoided. They can be jumped, but they knock points off your overall score.

The games come with various objectives. In some you have to score a certain number of points in order to earn a Bronze, Silver or Gold rating - if you fail to earn any, you can't move onto the next puzzle. Others are all about finishing the level with as few pegs remaining as possible.

These goals offer a good level of challenge and they quickly become brain-taxing affairs. The game's presentation helps its cause too - the cut-scenes, puzzle boards and music are all top notch.

Angels & Demons Puzzle is quite sedate - a fancy solitaire style puzzler rather than a frantic block-falling one. There are no time limits to speed you up and, as such, it's lacking a little in excitement. But anyone wanting a slow-paced and cerebral puzzler with a smattering of story and lots of style could do far worse.

Angels & Demons Puzzle

The Angels & Demons link is tenuous but the puzzler aspect of the game is high quality. It's slow-paced but a good single-player choice for fans of solitaire and sudoku
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Kath Brice
Kath Brice
Kath gave up a job working with animals five years ago to join the world of video game journalism, which now sees her running our DS section. With so many male work colleagues, many have asked if she notices any difference.