We all like match-3/4 puzzle games right? Yes? Well, here’s Critical Mass where we’ll take the match-4 puzzle game into 3D.
Critical Mass is a lot like your typical match-4 puzzle game. You place pieces to try and clear them out until you clear your board. You keep continuing this as you progress through each level. Typical stuff right? Well, as mentioned, Critical Mass takes this a step further and goes into the realm of 3D. You can move your board around to place blocks on different sides. Unfortunately, not all that glitters here is gold…
In Critical Mass you are constantly on a timer until your board eventually “blows up.” For it to blow up you have to reach what is known as critical mass. Along with through time, you also reach critical mass by not making combos. Each time you don’t make a match of 4 or more the board gets a bit closer to you. On top of this it is also constantly moving to an angle – either a default angle at first or in whichever way you last spun the board. It doesn’t move too fast but it still moves fast enough to throw you off some.
With Critical Mass being 3D you can place your pieces on every side of a block on the board. For the most part this works out great, but there will be times where you can’t judge it exactly right and end up placing the block in the wrong place. Even playing on casual I was having difficulties keeping up with both clearing the board and trying to stay out of critical mass. A lot of this was because I either couldn’t see that there was a combo (from it being obstructed from view in some sort, you have to do a lot of blind guessing), because there wasn’t a combo at all, or because of placing something in the wrong place.
Critical Mass does feature several modes. Classic has you go through 10 levels trying to get the best score you can to place on the leaderboards. Survival is as it sounds – you have to survive as long as possible. Meditation mode lets you relax without worry of failure from time or lack of combos, and Rush has you timed against your score trying to clear it as fast as possible. There are also 4 difficulties to play with, though I started having difficulties even on casual.
If you do decide to play Critical Mass be prepared to have other music playing. The game features the same 10 second loop in basically every level and well… it gets old very fast. Just mute the game and turn on your favorite soundtrack or album while you play.
While Critical Mass was a good idea it falls short of what it could have been. The controls are a bit finicky, especially when placing a block, and the soundtrack is non-existent. The leaderboards have major loading issues even when just trying to pull your friends scores. While perhaps it might be something to play on a rare occasion, you are better off just skipping it for a better puzzle game.
Critical Mass Review Score
1.5/5
