Celtabula

The concept of this game is great. The graphics and physics are good, maybe too good. Completing each level requires the *precise* placement of objects to bounce or otherwise guide a ball through a maze. In later levels, the physics involved become very complex, which would be fine, except solving the puzzle becomes almost completely a matter of repeated trial and error. The objects are difficult to move *precisely" enough to tweak a near solution into success. Rather, the exercise becomes a tedious nudge and repeat exercise. Zeroing in on a solution is straightforward, but ultimate success is largely a matter of luck. Also, bad is that once a level is conquered, the set-up is lost. Recreating it becomes yet another tedious, mind-numbing, trial and error exercise. The game needs TOOLS to precisely place and nudge objects AND allow for predictable results. As it is, I reached the upper levels only to be frustrated trying to solve complex problems with crude adjustments. And NO, it is not my lack of SKILL that is the handicap. It IS the crudeness of the object placement mechanics. I will not play this game again until there are updates to the mechanics.

Celtabula is an older Russian puzzle game from 2017. It's a venerable 7 years old at the time of this review. It's basically a ripoff of Khet, you place blocks on a board and then bounce a marble off them to hit the target (the marble replaces the laser in Khet, but the result is the same). If you don't place the blocks right you will miss the target. From a technical perspective, the game doesn't meet basic minimum requirements that most PC gamers expect as standard. The controls can't be customised because the game has such a dumbed down, simplified interface that it's just iPhone screen tapping stuff. The fact that the interface is this dumbed down might be seen as a problem in itself, however... this is a fairly shallow experience if you're the kind of gamer that likes to play games with deep, rich control schemes and interaction. You'll get none of that here. This is indistinguishable from a mobile app, but they put this on Steam instead of the app stores by mistake. Was it rejected by Apple and Google (they do have more rigorous quality standards than Valve does for Steam, after all)?. Regardless, for all intents and purposes Celtabula might as well be a mobile app…

Interesting and moderately complex game