Game Reviews

Cyto

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iOS
| Cyto
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Cyto
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iOS
| Cyto

The App Store is full of twee, physics-based puzzlers, each with a cartoon hero, a progression system based on your success in previous stages, and a way of gradually introducing new obstacles as you play.

Cyto fits comfortably into that ever-expanding chunk of the market, and, while it's an interesting enough diversion, it fails to do anything impressive enough to mark it out from the crowd. This is safe, generic fun, but nothing more than that.

Cell division

You play an amnesiac blob called Cyto, who needs to collect his memories. Thankfully, these are spread around the 81 levels of the game, and you have all the tools you need at your disposal to get them back.

The game is all about using Cyto's elasticity to your advantage. You stretch him out by dragging a finger around the screen, and as the game progresses you'll discover new abilities that let you use this springiness to your advantage.

To begin with you're just flinging him from blobby piece of scenery to blobby piece of scenery, with the ultimate goal of collecting the three memories hanging around the level and then escaping through a black hole.

You'll soon learn new tricks, though, like connecting Cyto to two blobs in order to catapult him farther, or using different coloured attachment points to stretch and then contract him over perilous gaps.

The gameplay is reasonably robust, but collecting all the memories and moving on to the next challenge is rarely greeted with anything other than indifference. You don't feel like you've really achieved anything - just completed a simple task and moved sideways to another.

Cyto-kay

There's a narrative that tries to add meaning to your puzzling, but it feels a little forced, and the slightly limp visuals add to an overall sense that Cyto just isn't at the top of its game. It's enjoyable enough, and better than a lot of other examples of the genre, but in the end it feels a little too by-the-numbers.

If laidback physics-puzzlers are your cup of tea then you'll likely enjoy Cyto. It's well put-together, and there's plenty of content to work your way through. But if you're looking for something a little more challenging, or a little more interesting, you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

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Cyto

A by-the-numbers physics-puzzler, Cyto is well put-together, but never quite intriguing enough to wholeheartedly recommend
Score
Harry Slater
Harry Slater
Harry used to be really good at Snake on the Nokia 5110. Apparently though, digital snake wrangling isn't a proper job, so now he writes words about games instead.