Opus Magnum

Zachtronics is a company I really love, even though I've never finished any of their games until now. This game is best described as SpaceChem in hexagons and with a much larger playing field. It's also a lot prettier. Also, instead of chemical reactions based on the real periodic table, it's alchemy based on a set of four elements, six metals, salt and quicksilver. Rather than two (and exactly two) moving pieces working to complete a problem, as in SpaceChem, you're given as many pieces as you like (although fewer = a better score) that have less mobility and can be collided with. One touch that's really fun is that after you succeed, the game can record a gif of your solution - and the gif is seamless. You better believe I annoyed all my gaming friends with this feature. The gifs are pretty mesmerizing, especially if you manage to find efficient solutions with nonstop movement. There's no replay value given beyond your own OCD. Once you're done, you can put it down and be satisfied that it's completed - or you can start optimizing and see if you tie the world records. Every player's results are added to a global tally and displayed on each puzzle, and finding your way into that top percentile is really satisfying. The final effect is that Opus Magnum is a lot easier to dip your toes into than SpaceChem (even though it's arguably way more complex) and I managed to get to the end without getting overly frustrated (the reason I've never finished other Zachtronics games). The idea is really solid, and the story is pretty fun - it starts out with a deeply discontented overachiever disliking his new job as House Alchemist, but it takes a Game of Thrones tone very suddenly - and on the whole, if you like Zachtronics, this is their strongest offering yet. Word of advice: Try to master keyboard-and-clicking quickly. If you only click and drag, the final levels will be an absolute slog.

(Based on Steam version of the game. I did not finish the game.) In this game you put a set of moving arms and give them a sequence of movements to accomplish a goal. Well, it is somewhat challenging, and definitely each solution is "your own" - nobody else solved it the same way. But at least for me it's not very satisfying. Somehow the freedom of placement of all elements seems to make the task less meaningful than I'd expect. There are, as usually, three targets to optimise: steps, are and cost. For many of the tasks optimisation for area or for cost is trivial. Well, maybe not really trivial, but at least you know exactly what is the limit, e.g. 1 extenting arm and 1 thing for binding atoms. You just cannot go below that cost. I really LOVE most of the Zachtronics games. Space Chem is great, Infinifactory is fantastic, and I spent many hours also with their programming games: TIS-100 and Shenzhen I/O. But after completing three chapters of Opus Magnum I didn't feel like I really want to proceed. I'll get back to it one day probably, but there's no "just one more level" effect for me. So, I'm a bit disappointed. I'm still giving 4 stars because the game is very polished and nice. It's probably a good game, just somehow not compatible with me.

I love this game. Unlike many other puzzles games, Opus Magnum is free form. Every puzzle can be solved with enough time and effort. What makes this fun is the fact that your solution will look nothing like your friend's solution. There is room for much creativity. After solving a puzzle, you can revisit it any time to try your hand at improving it one of three categories: area (how spread out the machine is), cost (the quantity and quality of machine parts), and cycles (how many steps the machine takes to finish products). Even if you fail to improve those three areas, it's still fun simply building new machines. Those experiments expand your portfolio and give you ideas to use on future puzzles.

I have lost many, many hours this week to playing Opus Magnum. It's hard to feel bad about it; it feels like time well spent, expanding my critical thinking and problem solving capabilities. If you like construction, programming, and problem solving games, you owe it to yourself to check out Opus Magnum. The interface lacks some quality-of-life polish, but every puzzle after the tutorial is free build -- you begin from dead scratch. It's extremely compelling, and the graphics are simple but beautiful in a clean, industrial way. The game also has a more traditional color-matching solitaire board game imbedded in it, My only complaint with the gameplay -- and I do mean /only/ -- is that the programming interface appears to almost have been an afterthought -- it takes up a tiny fraction of the screen, which makes it impossible to see more than a small portion of any program at any time. The keyboard controls are excellent and intuitive but the copying and pasting functionality is not. It would have been nice to simply have the grid numbered so that you can keep your place while programming long strings, but even this was overlooked. That said, it does not even come close to ruining what is otherwise a truly excellent piece of software. I hope to be able to stop playing someday. Perhaps tomorrow.