Lucid (PC) Review

Lucid is so calming that it should be used in mental health hospitals. The flying-over-the-clouds perspective, echoing 'bloop' and chime SFX, Zen music, and overall dreamy feel, make it very clear that this was made to relax. The problem is that this continues with the gameplay itself, as it will rarely, if ever, try to challenge the player.

As is the case with Match-3 puzzlers, the concept is pretty simple: draw a path along a bunch of identically-coloured blocks, and wipe them out, accumulating score points in the process. The problem is that the algorithm running behind it all doesn't ever try make things a little harder for you, thus, this feels more like a toy; something that doesn't require any grey matter; something you play with, and then throw aside.

Lucid is also devoid of any additional, specialised blocks, apart from the titular ones, which gamers "create" by doing combos, smashing blocks of a particular colour, and which let you clear the whole level. The result is an experience that feels the same from beginning to end (despite the relatively high number of levels), as there's no real strategy involved.

In conclusion, then: a simplistic, repetitive, and mind-numbingly easy game, where getting the achievements is actually harder than beating the last level. The thing about titles like Lucid, however, is how out-of-place they feel in a PC monitor. In other words, this was meant to be played with a touchscreen, and on a mobile device - but, then again, there are far better alternatives.