Unlocking the God Particle of Puzzles
What is the Higgs Boson? Well, as you may have guessed, I am not a physicist or even close to that. In fact, I had trouble spelling physicist. But what we do know is that it is a particle that has been theorised since the 1960s, confirmed in the Hadron Collider in Switzerland in 2012. It’s a particle that is referred by some as the ‘god particle’, due to its significance in how it changed the landscapes of physics.
In Higgs Boson: Puzzle Collection, the game, you don’t need to worry about any of that information. Nope, you don’t need to be a physicist either, because this is a nice little puzzle game about making shapes that connect.
Cheap Thrills and Brain Teasers
Simple puzzle games always seem to do well on Xbox, and we’ve even had them available in the past, playable in the corner of the screen while waiting for mates to join your online team. Higgs Boson is a good example of a simple premise that is fun to play, at least in short bursts. It comes with a cheap price to boot.
You start the game with three options available. There is a Minimal Puzzle mode with the easiest of puzzles to solve, totalling 30 in all. Then there is a self-described challenge mode which does exactly what it says, delivering 35 puzzles to try and complete. And then you have the timed mode, and another 31 tests of the mind coming to the fore. For the price, there are a fair amount of things to solve for your money.
Connecting the Dots
So how does it all work? Well, Higgs Boson: Puzzle Collection doesn’t give you any instructions or tutorials when you first start the game. Instead you are presented with a 2D playfield, with a broken shape on the screen, orbs moving in a repeating pattern across the incomplete lines.
What you need to do is to put together the parts to form a perfect shape so that things join up. Of course, each shape is different, so for example in one level you might have a star shape, or a square, or at one point a little Pac-Man shape.
Rotating Complexity
The gameplay elements focus on the moving of different parts that correspond to one of the buttons on your controller. So for example, in the most simple parts of the game, you have specific sides of a broken circle attached to the bumpers and triggers. Click what you need, make a circle and viola, the level is complete. That’s the simple version – but be in no doubt, Higgs Boson ramps up the difficulty.
As you progress, bigger shapes, those with many sides, need to be rotated and matched. But then, just as you think you have a handle on how Higgs Boson works, things get trickier still; two sides of a shape controlled in their rotation by the same button on the controller.
Thankfully, at any point in Higgs Boson: Puzzle Collection you can reset the puzzle at hand, something which is a handy trick for when you’ve gone so far down one path it’s hard to remember how it started.
Visuals and Audio Atmosphere
I’ll admit, I’m constantly amazed by how certain developers manage to make the most simple of games so pleasing on the eye. It’s like they have partaken in a course of relaxing colours and brain-training visuals, because sitting down with the likes of Higgs Boson delivers calm, as you look through screens and screens full of shapes and moving circles.
The same could be said about the soundtrack and how that works with the puzzle-solving. Again, calming is the main focus for the music; like something you might find in a yoga studio whilst eating a vegan breakfast. I liked it a lot.
A Relaxing and Clever Puzzle Distraction
There needs to be a place in the market for games like Higgs Boson, as players look to take breaks from the all-action shooters and platformers that push our blood pressures to the max. With a cheap price in place, there is tons of content included in Higgs Boson, and the various modes give it another little edge.
There’s not much here to drag in non-puzzle lovers, and the initial explanation of what needs doing is a bit confusing, but ultimately Higgs Boson: Puzzle Collection is a clever puzzler that provides a nice little distraction.
Important Links
Can You Master Quantum Puzzles? Afil Games Drops Higgs Boson Collection on Xbox & PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/can-you-master-quantum-puzzles-afil-games-drops-higgs-boson-collection-on-xbox-pc/
Buy Higgs Boson, Optimised for Xbox Series X|S – https://www.xbox.com/en-gb/games/store/higgs-boson-puzzle-collection/9nlrz1s96gvz
Get the Xbox One version – http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/higgs-boson-puzzle-collection-xbox-one/9P3DH78N527M/0010
Take home an Xbox Bundle – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/higgs-boson-puzzle-collection-xbox-bundle/9PC631DJ4XFT/0010/9QCKH7H8THSK
Or throw in some PC play – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/higgs-boson-puzzle-collection-xbox-windows-bundle/9NVXD11CWDFH/0010/9RT99S58S4J0
