Game Reviews

Take It Easy

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iOS
| Take It Easy
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Take It Easy
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iOS
| Take It Easy

There's more than one way to skin a cat, or so they tell us. Why anybody would want to skin a cat in this day and age is unclear, but the expression generally means that are usually multiple solutions to any given problem.

The expression doesn't seem to apply quite so well to puzzle games, unfortunately. Outside of staple line-formers and match-threes, there isn't a whole lot of apparent variation in approach.

Take It Easy is latest game to attempt something fresh with the abstract puzzler.

Never mind the blocks

You could call Take It Easy a line-former, but it's nothing like Tetris.

The idea is to place a series of hexagonal playing pieces onto a Blockbusters-like game board. Each piece has three criss-crossing coloured lines running through it, and your goal is to form a lattice of extended unbroken lines from one edge of the game board to the other.

The base Classic mode is all about this core system, and in truth it gets rather boring rather quickly.

There's some tactical consideration based on the fact that different colours have different numerical values - and thus radically differently point scoring potential. But, ultimately, it's just not interesting enough to sustain your attention beyond a few highscore attempts.

Puzzled expression

Take It Easy is far from a write-off, though. The other two modes - Puzzle and Progressive - are actually pretty good fun, especially once you progress through the initial tutorial stages.

Puzzle mode gives you a full board and lets you rearrange the pieces at will. It also gives you an increasingly elaborate series of conditions to meet for the round.

This might mean getting a certain number of blue lines, reaching a set score, getting a set number of angled pieces or forming complete shapes. It's even better when there's a mixture of these elements.

Progressive mode, meanwhile, adds a timed element. Where the other modes give you all the time in the world, allowing you to, well, take it easy, this is a far more tense and tricky mode - once you eventually manage to unlock it.

Easing off

Take It Easy is a lot more interesting than initial impressions would suggest. It's unfortunate that the wafer-thin main mode and bland presentation undersell what turns out to be an involving puzzler.

While the developer hasn't managed to offer something revolutionary to the puzzle genre, then, it has rearranged those shape and colour-matching staples into interesting new patterns.

It's just a shame you have to look so hard to see them.

Take It Easy

Following a slow start, Take It Easy develops into a surprisingly involving and multi-faceted puzzle game
Score
Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.