Lowglow
After a run of bad multiplayer matches in several games on my PS4, I looked for a calm, stress-reliever type game… Which is when I realised I didn’t actually have one. My friends I’d played with had all jumped on Stardew Valley, understandably, considering it’s so soothing and addicting that it borders on being illegal. Meanwhile, the closest thing to that for me was Darkest Dungeon simply due to it being turn-based. Don’t let that name trick you though. Staggeringly, it isn’t about gentle strolls through meadows filled with fluffy creatures. But on STEAM, I found this dusty, uninstalled gem.
The entirety of the controls are performed with the mouse. Draw a line, grab a point on either side to tilt, then place it where you reckon the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place! This starts off fairly easy at first, obviously, but gets tougher in time, but it always stays soothingly calm thanks to its forgiving nature and chilled music. The diamond spawns a ball repeatedly and you simply adjust your lines so that they reach the portal. No wasting your time with a “start” button and an obnoxious failure state screen telling you what you already know if you didn’t immediately get it right!
Due to it being physics based, there’s usually more than one way to go about completing a puzzle. Each level has a limit on the amount of lines you’re allowed to use. This means you can get under par with the correct placements, which makes you feel like a genius. Though if you’re really struggling with a certain puzzle, fortunately they have a solution to that as well. You collect a “golden line” for every set of puzzles you complete and can place these lines in any level. But the catch is that when you beat the level, they remain there. But you can collect them again by achieving at least par.
The puzzles (depending on their colour) stay in their own sectors on the main map. Each one of these coloured sectors has four zones to beat. Usually, there’s four puzzles per zone. So when I now point out there are five sectors, you know there’s a LOT of puzzles. This isn’t even taking into account the bonus levels that unlock per sector beaten. For one golden line, you can access harder levels based on the same mechanics of the sector you just beat. But there’s EVEN MORE. After you complete the main game, a tonne of extra bonus missions magically appear and I haven’t even done those yet!
It’s about learning how to manipulate the forces around the area and creating trick shots in order to maximise the potential of a single shot. Basically, Lowglow is a game of crazy golf. In space. With an infinite amount of shots. Oh, and it’s 75% off right now… So, basically, what I’m trying to say is…