To Save A Kingdom
The Kingdom of Hexalot needs saving! Now, that might sound like a silly name to common folk like you and I, but to King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, it's home. King Arthur recently fell in battle with the Saxons, and the riches of his kingdom were stolen! If Hexalot is to survive, the wealth must be retrieved!
Trusty Wizard
As Merlin, you must guide the Knights along their journey by constructing bridges for them. In the game, you do this by laying out colored tiles in diagonal rows between the knight pieces and the castle pieces. There are two types of castles: brown castles and white castles, with the ultimate goal being to get all of the knights to the white castles.
You get bonus points for various things, one of those things being sending several knights across at once. By planning ahead, it's possible to send several knights over at once. It's not an easy thing to accomplish, as it requires skill and a bit of luck, but all of this effort makes it very rewarding once you manage to pull it off.
Right of the bat, I was sucked in by this unique gameplay mechanic. It requires a completely different approach then traditional puzzle games and the amount of careful strategizing that the game calls for really took it to the next level for me.
A Wrench in the Works
As you progress through the game, new elements will be introduced that ramp up the difficulty quite a bit. The first addition that you will discover is the inclusion of different colored tiles. This is important because bridges must be constructed of blocks of the same color; bridges made using multiple colors will fall apart. This alone changes the gameplay dramatically, throwing all of your ingenious single color strategies right out the window.
Other additions will pop up to halt your quest. Color-specific spaces can be built upon with a certain color tile, tiles with locks on them must have rows produced next to them to break the lock before they can be used, and so on and so forth.
However, you will also find aid in your quest. Multi-colored blocks can be matched with any standard color and will prove invaluable to pulling off big combos and scoring major points. You'll also get access to the dropzone, where you can drop unwanted pieces to make room for new ones.
Medieval Times
Medieval times is a popular theme amongst puzzle games, to the point where it's almost been played out. However, who does this theme belong to if not King Arthur? The look, feel, and sounds of the game all have a very distinct, very authentic medieval feel, and it works well to bring the magic of King Arthur to your computer.
A Noble Quest
Hexalot is a fantastic game and it's unique play mechanics are something that everyone should check out. If you're looking for something fun and challenging, I can think of no game that fits that description better. Highly recommended!
