Cogs – fantastically challenging Apparatus building game puzzlers will love!
by Paul Wilks
Jan 16, 2013 8:42 AM –
Install
Cogs is a fantastically challenging puzzle game where you have to solve rich 3D puzzles to ensure a particular contraption works. You move the cogs (and other apparatus) around to link them together with a clear goal in mind; this might be blowing up a balloon, making a propeller rotate, ring a bell, turn and handle, power a larger cog and so on. If you like canny logic puzzles with a steampunk twist, definitely check this out.
Price: Free or $2.99 for the full version
Tested on: Nexus 4
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Stunning 3D graphics!
- Challenging gameplay!
- Good sound!
- Lots of levels!
Cons
Features:
Cogs offers a simple premise, fix the contraptions to make them work. You have to combine pipes and wheels in order for certain actions to occur- handles turning, balloons filling with air and so forth. The action takes place on a free floating cube and typically a grid of spaces where you can shift and move components too make them both fit and work. With more complex levels you have to rotate the cube and work on different sides, while on others still you have different levels and sizes of cogs to operate.
The game is about logic and physics, If you’ve played games like Apparatus, you’ll be truly at home taking on the tricky combinations required in Cogs. It’s not easy, and I felt the learning curve was at times quite steep, but completing a complex puzzle is extremely rewarding. The thing is, the puzzles themselves are brilliantly designed and, once you get started, gameplay can become overwhelmingly infectious and make Cogs a hard game to out down.
One thing I really liked was the over-riding steampunk theme. There’s bells, whistles, cogs, pipes, wood, copper and all manner of bits and bobs that kind of make you feel like you’re tinkering in an inventor’s attic. The game comes with three modes of gameplay which utilizes 50 different puzzles and offers many hours of diverse gameplay. Your performance is marked by things like the number of moves you make and the speed at which you compete the puzzle, but I found all this to be quite irrelevant when you get started into the rich gameplay and fiddle with the immersive mechanics in front of you.
Cogs is a great game if you like inventions, steampunk, engineering or logic puzzles. It’s a simple game to play, but the puzzles are increasingly tough to complete. However, the drop-dead gorgeous graphics and quirky sound effects mean it a game you enjoy playing whether you’re storming through the levels like a master inventor or merely plodding slowly via trial and error. Either way it’s fun, engrossing and very immersive to play.
Watch on Mobile
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Cogs – Coordinate cogs and other components to complete the level
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Cogs – Try to complete each level with as few moves as possible and as fast as you can
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Cogs – Puzzle often requires you to rotate the cube in 3D to access other parts
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Cogs – Levels get progressively harder
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Cogs – Level complete
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Cogs – Menu
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Cogs – Level select
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Cogs – Settings
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Cogs – Dev splash screen
Fun Factor:
If you enjoy solving puzzles, you’ll most definitely enjoy Cogs’ gameplay. It’s perhaps not for everyone and perhaps the learning curve will put off more casual players, but for the persistent the game is lots of fun and very rewarding.
Addictive:
I think if you get stuck into the game, it can easily be one of the most addictive games you have played. Some levels come together very quickly as you just ‘see’ the solution quickly while others require more thought and patience. This makes for gameplay that easily tempts you with ‘just one more level’, so it can be tricky to put down.
Graphics:
The graphics are sumptuously 3D and full of gorgeous detail. The delicate movements of components, the smooth way the cube rotates and the cogs click together is great to watch and are engineered perfectly. Even the menus and sub-menus feature this lush visual style which permeates throughout the game.
Accelerometer, Vibration & Sound:
The sound is good, very subtle, but works well with the theme of the game. Perhaps more could have been made of it, but gameplay is so immersive it’s not something that would bother you much.
Tags:
3D,
3D Games,
Android App,
Android Apps,
Android Game,
AndroidTapp.com App Review,
Apparatus,
Cogs,
Engineering,
Geared,
Mechanics,
physics
Categorised in: Brain & Puzzle
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