From Falling Blocks to Silhouette Puzzles
We all loved Tetris when it first came out. In fact, I played it so much that I would dream about those little blocks falling from the sky. Alexey Pajitnov, the inventor of the game, obviously loved playing the puzzle game Pentominoes as a child, where you arranged blocks into shapes, each made of five squares.
So, what happens if you take the building blocks of Tetris and, instead of them falling from the sky, you place them at the side of a silhouette? In order to make the shape whole, you fit the pieces into it until the image is complete. Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Cubic Figures.
The Allure of the Simple Puzzler
I like a good puzzle game that doesn’t require too much thinking time; something I can dive in and out of for a few minutes at a time. Ideally, these types of games are perfectly suited to mobile phone gaming, where you can play on the commute or while trying to hide from your family in the smallest room of the house. It is a sort of brain exercise that doesn’t require much gaming skill or the understanding of a complex control system. Lately, there have been a lot of these games landing on consoles, and it is easy to understand why they have become so popular.
So, what should you expect from Cubic Figures? Well, don’t expect any kind of story. There isn’t a lengthy cutscene telling you how you are the only survivor of a village disaster and are out for revenge. It’s just not that kind of game. And don’t expect to be filled in as to why you are making figures out of cubic blocks. No one knows. No one cares. But it is fun and addictive, which is all you really need to concern yourself with. I always say that when there isn’t a story, you can just make one up. Personally, I named each shape after a Lord of the Rings character to keep myself amused.
150 Levels of Shapes and Silhouettes
Cubic Figures consists of three levels of difficulty: Easy, Medium, and Tricky. Each of these difficulty settings has 50 levels to complete, bringing the total to 150 levels. I think this is a pretty good amount of content for a puzzle game. On each level, you are presented with a shape in the centre, marked by a white outline. This shape could be something a bit abstract, but mostly it is something recognisable like a key, a dog, or a plane.
Around the edge of the shape are different cuboid pieces to select. These pieces are in the classic Tetris style – straight lines, squares, two-by-two blocks – along with many different variations, some of which aren’t even found in Tetris. The aim is to take these shapes and try to fit them all into the white outline to makes the shape complete. You can rotate the pieces at 45-degree angles and then drag them across to see if they fit. When the shape is complete, the game moves you onwards to the next level. It’s all very simple stuff.
Gameplay Mechanics and the Hint System
You can tackle the difficulty tiers in any order, but you cannot select specific levels within a tier before completing the previous ones. The Easy levels are exactly what they say they are and aren’t hugely tricky. For the harder ones, however, be prepared to keep restarting when you get it wrong, spending a long time on each level to finally get it right.
It’s here where Cubic Figures plays like an alternative version of a jigsaw puzzle and requires concentration and, at times, a lot of patience. Thankfully, there is a hint button that shows you the solution, which is a bit too tempting if you ask me; I would have liked this feature to be less revealing or strictly limited.
Visually, the game looks good, but don’t expect your Xbox Series X to struggle running it. It features a nice, simple design with the shape outlines set against a sort of space background. The menus are well-presented, clean, and easy to navigate. There is also a simple soundtrack playing underneath the gameplay that wouldn’t feel out of place in a 90s club chill-out room.
A Refreshing Break
If you are like me and enjoy a puzzler as you look to take a break from the massive AAA games out there with their 70-hour playthroughs, then I think you will enjoy Cubic Figures. It is a simple concept, but that is exactly why it works. Jigsaw fanatics will see a familiar set of rules and tools at work here as they try to fit the right pieces into the right slots. Just be wary of the help button, which simply hands you the solution, feels like a bit of a cheat and is far too tempting, especially on the harder levels.
But if you can resist using it, then give your brain a bit of a workout with Cubic Figures.
Important Links
Rotate And Solve In Cubic Figures On Xbox And Play Anywhere – https://www.thexboxhub.com/rotate-and-solve-in-cubic-figures-on-xbox-and-play-anywhere/
Buy from the Xbox Store – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/cubic-figures/9pmj2q33mgf6
