Artilect

Artilect is too hard for its own good. It's a given that when you take on a puzzler, you should expect to be challenged, but it should never be a chore.

Therein lies the dilemma with Artilect. While it throws up plenty of challenges, conquering them is a dull, dry ordeal. Even when all the pieces have slotted into place, such is the banality of it all that you start to wonder just why you took it on in the first place.

Despite its simple look, this is as hard a puzzler as you're ever likely to encounter on iPhone and iPod touch. The whole game revolves around plotting a successful route from the middle of the screen to a red node at the bottom, all while defending your own blue node at the top.

In opening levels, Artilect is kept fairly tame. You jump from one node to the next with a tap. Nodes are initially a neutral green, but change to the colour of either you (blue) or your rival (red) whenever played. The key is to stick to your own blue nodes until you can manoeuvre your opponent into a trap.

Doing so is far from easy and it's not uncommon to discover you've actually worked yourself into a corner in the process. That's because every jump you make leaves a mark and you can't repeat any jump you or your rival have already made.

It results in a game where each and every move has to be pondered over with almost chess-like intensity. Every single strategy you put into action runs the risk of giving your rival a free run at the blue node if you've not evaluated every possible eventuality. Even if you have, getting caught up in your own mischief and running out of moves is just as likely.

As the levels pass, the whole set-up gets more complex. Walls start popping up that act like visited nodes, orange nodes allow you to leap farther than just a standard single hop, and purple teleport nodes take you from one section of the map to another. On paper, they should all make the process more exciting, but they just serve to make the game more confusing.

Artilect could easily be used as a Mensa entrance exam. Some stages appear impossible for long periods, before a single moment of success triggers a winning streak. Then, for no obvious reason, you find yourself back at square one. The simplest of alterations in the set-up - size of the grid, or colours of the nodes - makes the whole task appear futile again.

With in-game rewards virtually non-existent, the only real satisfaction to be had comes from beating each ridiculous level - usually on your twentieth attempt. As a puzzler, it sits awkwardly between being too hard for its own good, and too mundane to be entertaining.