Yet Another Hex-Based Puzzle Game, But With Nice Touches
There are quite a few games like Cookie’s Trails on the Xbox Store. There are enough of them that we should probably give them a name. The Xbox Store description says ‘cozy tactical puzzle’, but that’s too vague to cut it for us.
‘Hex routeplanner’ might sound a bit like a magical sat-nav, but it cuts to what these games are trying to do. You have a start of a route, and you have an end to the route. Between are hexes, and these hexes have paths scrawled on them. There are straight hexes, curved hexes and crossroad hexes. You can rotate them and swap them, all in the name of making a perfect path.
I’m Too Hexy For This Shirt
There are clues to which piece goes where. The walls of the puzzle are often pulled claustrophobically in, meaning that a curved piece must go there, otherwise Cookie is going to faceplant and fracture one of his squirrel teeth. There are also fixed pieces. These give yet more clues, as they have paths in and out of them. No paths can be left to flop in the wind without a connection, so you have to form a path with them. All of these provide much-needed guidance when it comes to finding a solution.
Plus, your solution had better factor in these fixed pieces. Half of them have enemies on them: miserable-looking rats that have been dunked in a vat of T-virus. The other half have baseball bats for whomping the zombie rats, and health boosters, since you start with two lives and can run down to zero if the rats chomp on you. The ideal path has Cookie arming up with baseball bats, walloping rats and then recovering any lost health.
When I Get This Feeling, It’s Hexual Healing
In all honesty, it is very, very hard to die in Cookie’s Trails, so the ratty threat is something of a phantom one. Not once did we manage to create a viable path AND die by rat. Think of the fixed pieces as a boon rather than hazard: they give handy information on what pieces might slot next to them.
Having recently reviewed Hexa Chippy, which is another Hex routeplanner game from Afil Games, it’s clear that there are a few important differences. We complained that Hexa Chippy had too many permutations to be truly fun; with its rotating bridges in particular, it was often a brain-bludgeoner. You had to anticipate the orientation of these bridges. It erred towards cumbersome.
Cookie’s Trails is anything but cumbersome. More of its hexes are locked in place, which means more clues for the player. That strikes a better balance, in my view. The puzzle designers can find large, open spaces that might otherwise have been tricky to plan around, and drop a fixed hex in the middle. Now you have an inkling of what to do.
Cookie’s Trails does share some of Hexa Chippy’s faults, though, which makes sense – the same template was used for both. In both games, the Hint System has been an utter misnomer: it offers no hint at all, as it’s a straight-out solution. If you’re hoping to be nudged in the right direction, rather than be given a red path through the level, then you might want to avoid it. And the Shuffle feature, as far as I can tell, has no purpose. Who wants to randomise puzzle pieces when several are initially placed in the right position as a helping hand to the player?
We’re Bringing Hexy Back
Regardless, I enjoyed Cookie’s Trails. I preferred the subdued level of challenge to Hexa Chippy, and there’s something about the rad ‘90s-ness of Cookie’s Trails that I vibed with. Baseball bat, cap, skateboard and a love of zombies: it’s only missing some graffiti tags and the cap being backwards.
Your personal appreciation for Cookie’s Trails will depend on a few factors. If you like achievements then hop aboard – there is 2000G here for only partial completion. Fill your boots, partner.
A Cozy, Feel-Good Hour of Hexing
If you like puzzle games, and prefer them to be cozy – without any time or turn limits – then this might do something for you. You should be open to easier, slightly more self-evident puzzles, rather than real head-scratchers. And you should be comfortable with an hour-long runtime. No puzzle lasts for much longer than five minutes.
But if your games need to have a modicum of challenge, a sliver of tension, or some demand on your reflexes, then you should probably give Cookie’s Trails a miss. The Xbox Store description was wrong about ‘tactical puzzle’ but it was right about ‘cozy’: Cookie’s Trails may be a fluffy, feel-good hour, but it verges on mindless and leaves no permanent mark on the memory.
Important Links
Zombies, Baseball Bats, and a Hamster Come Together in Cookie’s Trails – https://www.thexboxhub.com/zombies-baseball-bats-and-a-hamster-come-together-in-cookies-trails/
Buy Cookie’s Trails, Optimised for Xbox Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/cookies-trails-xbox-series/9N5K2R37CQHP/0010
Buy an Xbox One version – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/cookies-trails-xbox-one/9NNPGV1NDH7X/0010
