Understand

Genre: Puzzle

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: Review code provided by the kind folks at mazette! on behalf of Artless Games)

Understand is a Puzzle game released on PC in 2020 and ported to Nintendo Switch in 2022. Much as with games like The Witness and Baba Is You, the puzzles that players solve in this game aren’t the real challenge here. Rather, the challenge is in trying to figure out the rules that dictate the puzzles.

The presentation here is extremely minimalist. There’s no music, only minimal sounds to indicate wrong answers, partly wrong answers, and right answers, and simple flat colors and geometric shapes. The focus here is squarely on the gameplay.

When it comes to that gameplay, once again minimalism is the rule. There’s no tutorial, no instructions, not even so much as a title screen. Players are dropped into the game and right from the start must figure out what to do all on their own.

Each of the game’s puzzles has players drawing a path using a line on a grid, selecting a square to start in, moving along the path they want to take, and then pressing the A button to end placement. Upon completing a line, they will be shown indicators on the bottom of the screen letting them know which of that puzzle’s requirements have been successfully fulfilled. Fulfill all of them and you can move on. Otherwise, players can press B to try again, or pick up the line using A to move it elsewhere.

Puzzles in the game are presented as a series, with each series of puzzles sharing a rule set, but not telling you what that rule set is. The first puzzle in a set is always a “gimme” with the answer to the puzzle indicated with a dotted line, and subsequent puzzles all increase in complexity while keeping the same core rules. Rules can be as simple as “Start on a circle” and “end on a square”, but the farther into the game you get, the more tricky these rules can be, with some rules like “every area remaining must have the same number of empty spaces”, “the number of shapes you pass through must equal the number of shapes remaining”, or “the line length must be a prime number”.

It is when the rules start to get this esoteric that the game is its most frustrating. Often times players will find themselves stuck at puzzles with odd rules like these, and may very well have to break down and look up a guide online to get past this tricky puzzle, something that largely defeats the purpose of the game. Some sort of hint system would have really helped here. I know this game was aiming for elegant simplicity, but the result is that when you get stuck in this game, you can get really stuck.

It’s a shame too, because some of the puzzles in this game can be delightfully clever, and can even feature some postmodernist elements that are truly delightful. At times like these, the game can reach similar heights as games like the aforementioned The Witness and Baba Is You, but these moments are sadly infrequent.

One other element of this release that’s something of a mixed bag is the port to Nintendo Switch. The gamepad controls mostly work fine, though at times they seemed somewhat fiddly, having trouble selecting and deselecting squares. On the bright side, this game makes excellent use of the touchscreen, making for what I felt was the ideal way to play.

However, these added control options come with an added cost – the Nintendo Switch version of the game sells for $10, compared to the $4 of the PC version. This is a pretty hefty example of the “Switch tax” in action, and while I would still say that this game’s 100+ levels pack enough content to make the game worth this inflated price, it’s easy to feel otherwise with a game so plain and simple-looking.

In the end, Understand is a Puzzle game that still has a clever hook that’s fairly unique within the genre, and at its best this hook brings the game to the same heights as some of the best games in the genre… but at the same time, this hook can also drag it down in frustrating ways, and these issues combined with the simple presentation and somewhat high price tag can make it harder to appreciate than it should be. Puzzle Game fans should definitely still give this game a look, but be aware that its flaws mean it won’t be for everyone.

tl;dr – Understand is a Puzzle game where players must figure out the rules for each puzzle and draw a line that follows those rules. It’s a clever concept and at its best it is reminiscent of greats like The Witness and Baba is You, but more often it’ll leave players scratching their heads and looking up a walkthrough online. In addition, the extremely simple presentation and $10 price tag make this game somewhat less appealing. On balance, this is still a game Puzzle game fans will want to consider, but it’s not for everyone.

Grade: B-

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