Iron Code Software’s casual puzzler, Pahelika, is a pleasant, easy set of puzzles loosely tied together by a forgettable story. The game consists of six “worlds” that are comprised of a short series of “scenes.”  Each scene has an ultimate objective, such as opening a (gasp!) locked door, or opening a (double gasp!) deactivated portal, in order to get to the next scene.  In order to achieve these objectives, you need to complete a variety of very simple puzzles including combining objects, jigsaw puzzles, sliding puzzles and answering questions.

Frankly, Pahelika is just one in a flood of similar titles on the casual market, and it offers very little that distinguishes it from the competition.  Its only unique feature is the art that it employs, which is attractive enough to look at, but the color palette is rather dull and muddy, and I really could not name a particular scene that stands out in my mind as beautiful or strikingly imaginative. There are no animations in the scenes either, making them look lifeless and dull.

The puzzles are mind-numbingly simple.  The majority of your clicks will be spent picking up all of the loose objects scattered around the scene and opening the vast quantities of semi-camouflaged containers in the walls for even more objects.  This part of the game seems almost like a hidden-object type of casual game, but is essentially just the pixel-hunt adventure game trope.  You must then place these objects in the receptacles in the same scene, or combine them with another item.  Mixed in are the occasional jigsaw puzzle, sliding puzzle, and a few other types, but these are very simple as well. You are hardly ever required to move between scenes in order to solve a puzzle, so all the answers are just a few clicks away.  In fact, whenever there is a combination lock, you can be sure that the answer is written on a piece of paper nearby.  The only time I ever got stuck was when I couldn’t spot an object that I required because it blended into the muddy scenery or looked too nonchalant and unclickable.

There are comic-style cutscenes between each world, and little story blurbs at the beginning of each scene, but the tale they spin is utterly forgettable.  It has something to do with an ancient magical book used to slay demons that just happens to be in your basement. You come across it during the short tutorial in the first scene of the game and then use it to astrally warp between each of the six worlds, uncovering secrets along the way.

The bottom line is that Pahelika is a pleasant, easy puzzle experience, and nothing more.  If you want to search some decently attractive paintings for some objects to click, make your way through some impossible-to-fail puzzles with a little nonsense story for coloration, then fork over the twenty bucks and have a nice afternoon of casual puzzling, just don’t expect a challenge.

Doin It RIGHT: - Some scenes are imaginative and well-rendered. - Straightforward and easy to jump into. - Simple gameplay with easy to get through puzzles.	Doin It RONG: - Unchallenging, if you were looking for a brain-bender. - Muddy, often boring visuals with no animation. - Story is entirely forgettable.
FINAL SCORE: 6 / 10

A big thank you goes out to Iron Code Software for providing a review code for Spawn Kill.

Tags: adventure, Iron Code Software, Paheilka, PC, Puzzle

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 12:55 pm and is filed under PC, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.