This free puzzler is a clever twist on the Minesweeper formula

A nice little puzzle game called Hexceed launched last week to little fanfare, and it's quite good. It's a Minesweeper-esque game designed to flex your critical thinking, logic, and spatial reasoning skills. It's also completely free for the first five worlds—that's 472 levels by my count. There's an optional buy-in that adds a bonus thousand levels to clear. Between all that and the relaxed soundtrack of chill beats, Hexceed is a great entry in the genre of relaxing puzzle games.

What at first starts as a mundane, hexagonal logic puzzle about not clicking mines quickly becomes more complex. as the game introduces barriers that block connection between tiles and sweeping, massive hex grids of isolated islands and large sweeps of open terrain. It gets complex:

An image of numbers inside hexagons from puzzle game Hexceed.

(Image credit: ToastieLabs)

If you're familiar with logic puzzles, Hexceed is a great way to train the spatial reasoning and spatial logic bits of brain to think this way. I'd recommend it if you're new to the genre. You can find Hexceed on Steam, for free, and get the full version for $9, or 20% off until January 22nd. You can also check out the game on ToastieLabs' official website.

Contributor

Jon Bolding is a games writer and critic with an extensive background in strategy games. When he's not on his PC, he can be found playing every tabletop game under the sun.

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