Trails

Beautifully crafted puzzle game. The sound design is fantastic - it almost makes me forget how often I mess up on the tougher levels. The difficulty ramps up in a really satisfying way. The core rules are simple and easy to grasp, but the game pulls off an impressive amount of variety just from those fundamentals.

Spannendes Puzzlespiel. Wird zum Ende hin ganz schön herausfordernd. Macht viel Spaß und ist wärmstens zu empfehlen 👍 Wird direkt an puzzleliebende Freunde verschenkt :)

The first few puzzles were really simple, so I was a bit annoyed to have to go through all of them in order. But then I noticed that it is possible to unlock all puzzles in the settings. After that I picked a random one from further down the path. That one was a real challenge and it took me quite a while to find the solution, even though all the individual mechanics are straight forward. I wouldn't recommend playing this whole game in one sitting, unless you are trying to melt your brain. Instead, it is perfect for doing one or two challenging puzzle when you are in the mood. One thing I would criticise is that the CPU on my laptop went way up, even when nothing on the screen was moving. Since you will spend a lot of the time thinking, there is quite a lot of idle time, so I think this could be better optimized.

I am not very good at puzzles, but the nice setting, warm colors and relaxing music gives me the feeling that I have all the time in the world to solve them. Good job Purple Sloth!

If you enjoy calm and cosy puzzle games, I recommend this one. The art is really pretty, the music calm. I highly appreciate that the more difficult puzzles are in side paths, like side quests, so you can keep to the main path, in case you don't want to challenge yourself too much that day. Very good game for a relaxed puzzle afternoon.

[quote]I wrote this review for the [url=https://thinkygames.com/games/]Thinky Games Database.[/url] Check out the Thinky Games [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/44830649-Thinky-Games/]curation group[/url] for more reviews on Steam![/quote] [b][i]Trails[/i][/b] is a line-drawing puzzle game about giving directions to sand ships across the desert. The paths from each ship may overlap when drawing routes on the map, but you must avoid collisions by making sure that no two ships ever meet on the same tile. It’s a serene game that includes both gentle puzzles and tricky optional content, with reflective tones set by tranquil visuals and an acoustic guitar soundtrack. The ships start at fixed positions on a grid-based map; they must be guided to specific finish tiles by drawing color-coded paths. Ships cannot visit the same tile twice (i.e. they cannot cross their own path), however the paths from two ships may overlap, as long as they don’t visit the same tile at the same moment. Once you’ve drawn the appropriate lines, you hit play to watch the ships follow their paths in parallel, one tile at a time. If they’re able to make it to their respective ends without any untimely, disastrous crossing, then the puzzle is cleared! While the core challenge is almost always about avoiding crashes, [i]Trails[/i] has some tricks up its sleeve to spice up its turn-based conundrums. For instance, some levels include outposts that must be supplied with food or water, but loading these resources on a ship requires you to stop for a moment on dedicated tiles. These tiles prompt a one-turn delay which sometimes feel like the only barrier to success, until you realize they're actually the crux of a perfect, collision-free route. The level progression is similar to the all-round model of [i]Patrick’s Parabox[/i]. There’s a linear main path which introduces each new mechanic with fairly easy levels, followed by a short difficulty ramp-up, and then it switches to the next mechanic. However, hardened puzzlers may choose to spend more time on many remarkable optional levels, which can be as twisty and clever as the most difficult [i]Cosmic Express[/i] challenges.

Very nice little puzzle game! Quite easy going and cozy at first, but then getting more and more challenging towards the end. And it's incredibly rewarding to see a solution finally work out, so you just wanna keep going. Also, love the art style! <3 Very much recommended!